Is Sabaya’s suspension a warning?
Dar es Salaam. The suspension of Hai District Commissioner Lengai ole Sabaya has triggered hot debate on leadership, with some analysts saying the move by President Samia Suluhu Hassan was a warning to officials violating governance principles.
On Thursday, President Hassan suspended Mr Sabaya pending investigations over accusations which were not stated. However, some political analysts said the Head of State was sending a message about the rule of law in the country.
“President Samia has done a good thing which shows good governance. She could have just fired him but she has suspended him so that justice can be done,” said Dr Emmanuel Mallya of the Open University of Tanzania.
For his part, Dr Frank Kimaro from Iringa University applauded the President for her decision.
“For now, we cannot fairly judge Mr Sabaya, until the investigation is complete,” he said.
Debate about the suspension of Mr Sabaya, whom The Citizen’s efforts to reach over the phone proved futile, went viral on social media as some people recalled incidents that they linked with the official.
Some of these incidents included arbitrary detention of people as the district commissioner exercised his powers to hold suspects without trial for a maximum of 48 hours.
Mr Sabaya was once warned by the Kilimanjaro Regional Commissioner Anna Mghwira over unnecessary arrests.
In 2019, a hotel owner accused Mr Sabaya of corruption and harassment including demand of millions of shillings paid to him for no clear reason. However, Mr Sabaya is on record as denying the allegations, claiming they were trumped up.
Analysts also pointed to last year’s incident when opposition Chadema chairman Freeman Mbowe posted on his Twitter account that “Mr Sabaya, heavily armed, led a gang of criminals to raid the Aishi Tourist Hotel in Machame with the intention to injure or kill me. They abducted, tortured and injured two hotel guards.”
But, speaking in a recent programme on a local TV, Mr Sabaya said those were just “political games.”
While at Rundugai Village inspecting railway repairs last year, Mr Sabaya also ordered owners of Lim Safari and Machame Safari Buses, Mr Rodrick Uronu and Mr Clemence Mbowe respectively, to report at Bomang’ombe Police Station, accusing them of forming a criminal gang of sabotaging the railway infrastructure between Dar es Salaam and Arusha via Moshi.
In their case, the-then Kilimanjaro RPC Salum Hamdun said the allegations were untrue.
“Preliminary investigations revealed that no railway infrastructure had been damaged from Moshi to Arusha, which is being upgraded - and work is still under way,” said the RPC.
In February this year, the Sombetini Ward councillor in Arusha, Mr Bakari Msangi, accused Mr Sabaya of assaulting him after the civic leader defended a businessman whom he said “was forced to pay up millions.”
