Dar es Salaam/Dodoma. President Jakaya Kikwete yesterday declared he won’t be sidelined in the new Constitution making process.Mr Kikwete said he had the legal mandate to steer the impending review process and dismissed critics who, he charged, are seeking to curtail his role as president.Mr Kikwete said he took oath of office to protect Tanzania’s current Constitution and would therefore not shy away from playing his part.

He was responding to opposition parties and civil society organisations that opposed what they viewed as immense powers bestowed on the President by the Constitutional Review Bill 2011 that was approved by Parliament yesterday.
President Kikwete gave an emphatic endorsement of the Bill and said he would assent to it in two weeks’ time to set the process moving.

He aired these views when speaking to Dar es Salaam elders at the Saba Saba grounds in a two-hour address televised live to the nation. It was the first time for the Head of State to respond to growing unease over the Constitution review debate.

Opposition parties boycotted the debate in the House and yesterday vowed to team up with civil society and other groups to launch a parallel process.  

Critics of the Bill opposed the idea of the President being the sole appointing authority of a review commission, setter of terms of reference for the team and also nominator of members of other groups to the Constituent Assembly. It is also the President who will receive the final document and propose desired changes.

Yesterday, however, President Kikwete said the provisions in the Bill were nothing new, adding that his government broke no law and did not harbour any sinister motives.

“At all times past commissions were formed by the President, I am the President now with the same powers as my predecessors…why the difference now?” wondered Mr Kikwete amid applause from the audience. “The commission that I will form will be all- encompassing and I won’t bring in my friends,” said Kikwete.      

He chided the opposition for threatening to demonstrate and setting a parallel process, arguing they lacked the mandate to engage in such an exercise.The President said he would ensure national interests prevailed in any steps he undertook and called for tolerance and understanding by all Tanzanians.

“Our colleagues should learn to respect the views of others,” he said.
Earlier in Dodoma, the Parliament voted for the Bill despite expectations from the Opposition that it would be shelved to give more room for consensus building.  There were no major amendments to the document.Speaking shortly after, Speaker of the National Assembly Anna Makinda blamed the Opposition for their boycott and failure to bring on board their views.

“I was expecting a lot of schedules of amendments on this document, and I assumed this Bill was going to take a week,” she said.According to Ms Makinda, Opposition supremo Freeman Mbowe failed to clearly show how the House or the Speaker broke the law by allowing the debate to take place.

She wondered why some people were trying to push the President not to sign the Bill. “The only thing that remains is for the President to sign this Bill although there are some people who are trying to convince people to shun it for reasons which I do not know,” said the Speaker.

But the opposition Chief Whip Mr Tundu Lissu and the spokesperson for NCCR-Mageuzi,  Mr David Kafulila, yesterday dismissed the development as absurd. They both declared they would immediately team up with like-minded people to chart their own way forward.

“This is a CCM Bill,” he charged, “we will join millions of other Tanzanians to start a parallel process.”  
The Attorney General, Mr Fredrick Werema, said the government has tried to accommodate most views. The minister for Justice and Constitution Affairs, Ms Celina Kombani said the Bill has fulfilled all requirements and that MPs should go and tell their voters the truth.

However, the minister accused the opposition Shadow minister, Mr Lissu, of not offering any assistance to her during the preparation of the Bill as required.

Reported by Florence Mugarula in Dodoma and Polycarp Machira in Dar es Salaam 

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