What you did not know about Dr Mwinyi’s life

We were taking lunch at the Mwananchi Communications Limited (MCL) canteen on Monday, August 10, 2020, when I received a phone call.

It was from Mr Daudi Ismail. He told me that our (MCL’s) request for an interview with the Chama Cha Mapunduzi (CCM) flag-bearer for Zanzibar’s Presidency, Dr Hussein Mwinyi, had been granted.

However, we had to wait.

The following day, we were informed that the interview would be held at noon on Wednesday, August 12, 2020.

Contrary to our earlier expectation - that the interview would be conducted virtually via Zoom - we are now told that Dr Mwinyi was in Zanzibar, and that he would prefer a one-on-one interview to be held in the Isles.

As an English adage goes - ‘it is the early bird that catches the worm’ - we wasted no time.

We took off for Zanzibar early in the morning on Wednesday, hoping that we would complete the assignment swiftly and return to Dar es Salaam the next day.

But, Alas! That was not to be. While we were on the waiting list to meet with Dr Mwinyi, we received the message that “There has been an emergency, and the Presidential aspirant will not have time to speak to you today (Wednesday)”.

We agreed to push back the interview by 24 hours.

The following day, Boniface Meena, Peter Edson and I were at the interview venue on time.

After setting up the cameras, we informed our hosts that we were ready for the interview - and, in no time at all, DrMwinyi stepped into the room.

Dressed in black long trousers, a white shirt and a coffee jacket, he appeared composed: smiling and ready for the interview.

He detailed his journey as a public servant (watch the interview on You Tube channel) and what inspired him to seek the Zanzibar Presidency.

My curiosity brings me to tell the story of Dr Mwinyi’s life outside politics - and my first question was: Outside politics, what kind of a person is Dr Hussein Mwinyi?

Family man

He laughed a bit before responding: “Dr Mwinyi is a family man. I am a husband and a father. I am the kind of a person whose life is attached to family values, and I am sure I will remain as such even after I becomePresident”.

Flies below the radar

Despite being a cabinet minister and a legislator for many years, Dr Mwinyi prefers to fly below the radar. It is quite uncommon to hear him speaking in public.

But for him, it was the years he spent working as minister for Defence and National Service that saw him cultivating such a habit.

“In the ministry of Defence, it is largely unreasonable to put our life into the open. We deal with our issues secretly,” he said.

But it looks like the attitude of going without being detected is well entrenched in Dr Mwinyi’s Deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) and it was apparently due to that fact that social media platforms became awash with pictures of his (Dr Mwinyi’s) wife as soon as CCM had officially announced him to be its flag bearer in the race to succeed Dr Mohamed Shein as Zanzibar’s President.

Wife’s role

I put the question to him: “It seems you live a secret life. It was due to social media platforms that we came to know your wife. What is her role in your political career?”

In response, this is what he had this to say: “Like many other senior government officials, I have always been on assignments that are quite demanding in terms of time. It should be noted that apart from my political life, I am also a medical doctor,” he said.

As such, he said, his wife is the one who takes care of the family, making her one of his cornerstones.

“I remain thankful because if both of us were busy and mostly away from the family, our children would not receive the parental care and love like they have got through my wife,” he said.

He didn’t hide his love for rice and other African dishes.

Like father, like son

An African adage - which is well pronounced in Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart: ‘When mother cow is chewing grass, its young ones watch its mouth’ - has had an impact on Dr Mwinyi’s life.

Being a son of a former President of Tanzania, Mr Ali Hassan Mwinyi (1985-95), Dr Mwinyi saw how his mother and former first lady, Mrs Sitti Mwinyi, used to assume responsibilities of taking care of the family due to the father’s tight schedule.

“I learnt a lot from my parents. What I have said about my wife is exactly what I saw my mother doing during my father’s busy schedule,” he said.

Dr Mwinyi’s father had been a cabinet minister since 1970s. “From that time, he served as a cabinet minister in several portfolios before rising to become President of Zanzibar and ultimately, President of the United Republic of Tanzania…To a large extent, we have been brought up by our mother….She is like our corner stone and that is why, my life also follows that path,” he said, noting that his mother is probably the most important person in his life.

He said, his father was yet another cornerstone, mostly due to his seriousness on education and his (former President Mwinyi) profound advice on his children’s political lives.

“He shrewdly believes in youths’ education and he has been doing that with actions. Right from family level, he went into it that his children were better educated. When I went into politics, he started offering me with a lot of pieces of advice on this [political game] and since he retired, I regard him as my main advisor in everything including my political journey,” he said.

Books, prayers and exercises

Despite his busy schedule as a politician, Dr Mwinyi still finds time to do exercises.

He also reads books, mostly those on politics and economics.

He always has enough time for his God through prayers.

His beliefs

Dr Mwinyi is the kind of a person who believes in succeeding in whatever he embarks on.

During his youthful days, he had always wanted to become a medical doctor.

That was why he went to medical school and complete his studies successfully.

Having completed his studies, he worked as a medical doctor in the United Kingdom before returning home where he worked at the Muhimbili National Hospital.

Later, he moved to Dar es Salaam’s Hubert Kairuki Memorial University where he worked as a senior lecturer.

Following an inspiration he got in the year 2000, he found himself getting into politics and that was how he successfully vied for the Mkuranga Parliamentary Seat on the CCM ticket.

He served Mkuranga voters for five years and in 2005, he moved to Zanzibar where he had been a Member of Parliament for Kwahani for 15 years consecutively.

He said politics is all about ambitions to aim higher.

“So I have also been inspired by the ambition to go higher but not for my personal benefits. It is an ambition that is built on the desire to serve my people,” said Dr Mwinyi who trounced 31 other contestants to secure the ruling party’s ticket to vie for Zanzibar’s Presidency. DrMwinyi bagged 129 votes - representing 78.65 percent of votes from a total of 164 CCM’s National Executive Council (Nec) members who took part in the voting exercise in Dodoma last month (July).

He said a decision to shift his legislative position from Mkuranga to Zanzibar’s Kwahani had nothing to do with his future political aspirations.

“I only decided to come here because it is also my home. I am a fruit of the Union. I started with Mkuranga and then later, I decided to serve Zanzibaris and that was how I found myself here. Everything that happened after that was just by coincidence,” he said.

Dr Mwinyi is the kind of a person who will spend sleepless nights whenever things were not going in line with what he had planned.

That’s exactly how he felt when he was among the 32 contestants who had picked nomination forms to seek the ruling party’s endorsement to vie for Zanzibar’s Presidency.

The late former President Benjamin Mkapa remains Dr Mwinyi’s role model in as far as leadership style is concerned.

“I like his leadership style. He remains my role model…I thank God that I was able to reveal to him about my feelings regarding his leadership style [before he died] and seriously, I see him remaining as my role model even after his departure from the face of the earth… His accomplishments are just too many to name,” said Dr Mwinyi.

Former President Mkapa, who died at the age of 81 on July 23, 2020, is credited with creating workable institutions and systems that saw to Tanzania winning the praise of multilateral agencies and international investors - thereby resulting in the creation of a sound private sector in the country.

As such, Dr Mwinyi’s life is anchored on four main pillars. They include: his wife, who takes care of the family; his mother as a cornerstone for family building; his father as chief advisor and the late President Mkapa as his role model on leadership style.

So when we were finally done with Dr Mwinyi, it was time to return to Dar es Salaam but alas! We were in a traffic jam, with only ten minutes before the last boat [on that day] leaves the Isles.

We decided to take motorbike taxis to the port and just as we alighted, we started running, not realizing that we had forgotten to return the helmets. Upon being reminded by the motorbike taxi drivers, we all burst into laughter - and returned them. This is typical of Tanzanians as we remain hopeful that the country will remain united after the October 28, 2020 General Election.