Inside President Samia’s appointments

Dar es Salaam. President Samia Suluhu Hassan is making appointments that signal her need to build a team of people with unquestionable integrity and who can stand by what they believe to be right irrespective of the circumstances, analysts say.

On Saturday, President Hassan appointed several Regional Commissioners and leaders of other key government institutions. For example, she dropped the Prevention and Combating of Corruption Bureau (PCCB) Director General, Brigadier General John Mbungo, and replaced him with Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) Salum Rashid Hamduni.

Mr Hamduni, a former Regional Police Commander (RPC) for Ilala in Dar es Salaam, was promoted to the rank of Commissioner of Police. Other public offices that saw change of guards was that of the Clerk of Parliament where President Hassan appointed Ms Nenelwa Mwihambi to replace Mr Stephen Kagaigai who was appointed Regional Commissioner for Kilimanjaro. Sylivester Mwakitalu was appointed Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), replacing Biswalo Mganga who was appointed High Court judge last week.

A close analysis would show that Mr Hamduni is the kind of person who could not be easily swayed when it comes to standing for someone’s rights despite ‘pressure from above’.

“He will not be easily swayed or tempted into obeying orders which, once obeyed, may result into infringing on other people’s rights,” said a source who has known him for years but who did not want to be named.

It is probably due to his respect for human rights that, while working as Ilala RPC, he at some point found himself in the wrong books of former home Affairs minister Kangi Lugola. In January 2019, Mr Lugola revoked the appointment of Mr Hamduni as Ilala RPC on what he termed as failure to heed his directives.

Mr Lugola alleged that Mr Hamduni and two other RPCs had been condoning illegal businesses and protecting illicit drug dealers.

Mr Hamduni was then moved to the police headquarters but was later appointed by the Inspector General of Police (IGP) Simon Sirro to be the RPC of Njombe, Kilimanjaro and Arusha regions before his new appointment as the PCCB chief.

While there, he kept showing that he was not the kind of a person who would be easily utilized to advance other people’s political gains at the expense of human rights violations.

For instance, in January 2020, while serving as RPC for Kilimanjaro, Mr Hamduni released two businessmen who were arrested by order of the former Hai District Commissioner Lengai Ole Sabaya.

It emerged that Mr Sabaya had visited Rundugai village to inspect railway repairs and ordered two traders, Lim Safari and Machame Safari bus dealers Rodrick Uronu and Clemence Mbowe to surrender at the police station on suspicion of forming a criminal gang to destroy the transport facility.

However, the two were released by Mr Hamduni after preliminary investigations revealed that no railway infrastructure had been damaged. Last week, President Hassan fired Mr Sabaya from the position of Hai DC.

At the Parliament, President Hassan has appointed Ms Mwihambi as Clerk.

Having worked as an officer at the National Assembly for 20 years, Ms Mwihambi has what it takes to carry the duties of Parliament Clerk.

“I know she studied law and that she has been with the National Assembly since the year 2000… She is a down-to-earth person who loves what she does and one who will never advance selfish motives in the execution of her activities. She is simply loved by almost every member of staff of the National Assembly,” said a source at Parliament.

In the year 2012, Ms Mwihambi was picked on secondment to the Constitutional Commission and upon completing the assignment and returning to Parliament, he was promoted to become the director of table office.

Asked to comment on her appointment, Ms Mwihambi told The Citizen yesterday that Tanzanians can only expect that her leadership will be characterized by adherence to the Constitution, laws, rules and procedures governing the conduct of Parliamentary affairs.

“For now, that’s all I can promise,” said Ms Mwihabi. Being a constitutional role in line with Article 87 of the Constitution, the Clerk of the National Assembly is a presidential appointee who works as the Chief Executive of the Officer of the National Assembly.

Ms Mwihambi will be responsible for the efficient discharge of the business of the Office of the National Assembly by advising the Speaker and Members of the Parliament on House of procedure and privileges.

Another surprise rise in President Hassan’s Saturday appointments was that of new Dar es Salaam Regional Commissioner, Mr Amos Makalla.

Mr Makalla was quoted by a section of the media as thanking President Hassan for the appointment .

“I was once told that you must always look back with appreciation. You should also look up with faith and forward with hope. I thank the President for the faith she has shown in me and I promise that I will never let her down,” he said, speaking from his home in Mvomero, Morogoro Region.

Analysts say President Hassan’s appointments seems to care more of people’s integrity as well as their ability to abide by national laws and customs in executing their activities.

“People with higher integrity are humble and genuine. They do jobs not to become popular but being appreciated by the masses and this seems to exactly what is driving President Hassan’s appointments,” a political analyst from the University of Dodoma Dr Paul Luisulie, told The Citizen yesterday.

The president, he said, wants to create strong institutions with trusted leaders who the citizens will have no doubts about their judgments and actions.

She wants the subordinates who help her to run the country without criticisms in social media and societies.

“The president needs proper information to make wise decisions.

“That is why she puts trusted people who would share truthful information for the benefit of the majority people” he added.