Nimrod Mkono has left a living legacy in politics, legal profession

On the evening of Tuesday, April 18, 2023, the sad news of the death of Advocate Nimrod Elirehema Mkono, 79, started to go viral on social media. The news was, however, not confirmed. So, some of us started to look for Mzee Mkono’s family members in order to find the truth, but it was not easy.

However, it was finally confirmed, and when we woke up on the morning of April 19, all the major newspapers in the country had this sad news about the loss of our elder. Mzee Mkono passed away while in the United States, where he had been receiving treatment since 2018.

In my short life in the world, I have had the chance to work with Mzee Mkono, and so I thought I should write a short record of my experience working with him. It is obvious that an obituary is not an easy thing to write, but I will do my best.

I met Mzee Mkono in Parliament when I was elected as a Member of Parliament for Kigoma Urban, and he had been a Member of Parliament for Musoma Rural since 2000. Before becoming an MP, I was the leader of the Dar es Salaam University Students Organisation (Daruso) and a political activist.

I had been a big follower of student politics even after my graduation from the university. In September and October 2005, when we were in the middle of the General Election campaigns, Mzee Mkono was embroiled in the news about student struggles.

This was due to the fact that he was appointed chairman of the Higher Education Students’ Loans Board (HESLB) by then president Benjamin Mkapa. He was the founding chairman of the (HESLB), which was just in its infancy. So, as followers of student struggles, we have known Mkono since that time.

I had never known him before. In the 2005 fiasco, there were issues with the loans of students in higher education. The government lacked enough funds to provide loans to students who had joined the university that year and to those who were continuing their studies. The students went on strike. HESLB had no funds.

Mzee Mkono, as HESLB chairman, went to the UDSM to talk to the students, and after listening to them, he joined them in their demands and started pushing the government to provide funds.

The government had no money in its budget. Mzee Mkono and his fellow members of the HESLB Board of Directors suggested that the Social Security Fund for Public Employees provide funds to HESLB as a loan. A total of 55 billion shillings was released, the students were given their loans, and the strike ended. This incident is what made me know advocate Mkono, who has now passed on. When I entered Parliament in December 2005, one of the first questions I asked was about loans for students in higher education institutions.

The Deputy Minister for Higher Education at the time, Ms Gaudensia Kabaka, answered that the government disbursed loans without any specific criteria, which means some of the beneficiaries were not eligible. I knew this was related to the just concluded election campaigns. I asked if it was so, and Ms Kabaka said, ‘Yes, sir, you know about the campaign issues’.

Then the minister for Finance, Ms Zakia Meghji, had to stand and correct her by simply saying that there were mistakes due to haste and the money given to those who were not eligible would be returned. Mzee Mkono was in Parliament that day.

After the question-and-answer session, he brought me a message so that I could meet him at the Parliament restaurant. I went to meet him. He told me how he did it so that the government would disburse the loans to the students. In short, he blackmailed the government into fulfilling its obligations.

While laughing, he said that they would not reappoint him to the Board because he had taken them to task. Indeed, he was not reappointed to continue with the chairmanship of the HESLB.

That day was the beginning of a long relationship with Advocate Mkono, a relationship that turned out to be that of a father and son in every way you could describe it.

In 2010, while studying for a Master’s Degree in Business Law, I did practical training in his law offices, called Mkono and Company Advocates. Mzee Mkono was an exceptional Member of Parliament.

He did not wait for the government to implement development projects in his Musoma Rural constituency but did carry out some projects by himself with his own funds.

I am not a believer in MPs who use their monies to implement development projects in their constituencies because that behaviour will make the Parliament be for the rich only.

I told Mzee Mkono about this when I visited one of the best schools he built in his constituency, Chief Oswald Mang’ombe Secondary School. Mzee Mkono just laughed at me and said, “It is up to you, who have no money; who told you to ask for votes while you don’t have the ability to solve people’s problems?”

Mzee Mkono sometimes used to explain or answer serious questions with jokes and his unique laugh. The schools that he built in his constituency, he handed them to the government as part of the Mwalimu Nyerere Memorial University buildings.

This is a great legacy that Mzee Mkono has left for Tanzanians. It is my advice that the government should ensure that this college works and that students are enrolled. In recent years, we have heard that Mwalimu Nyerere Memorial University is a university without students. The existence of this university is one of the big steps towards preserving the honour of Mwalimu Nyerere, which was the goal of Mzee Mkono.

Since Mzee Mkono gave the buildings of his schools to the government for free, the latter should also build one large lecture hall in the same university and call it the Mkono Lecture Hall. In his work as an advocate, Mzee Mkono used to run many cases on behalf of the government.

This caused a lot of murmurs, as he seemed to be paid more money than the service he provided. However, in the government’s records, Mzee Mkono is the only advocate who enabled the government to win cases in international courts.

The case of the Water Services Company in Dar es Salaam, CityWater, which was owned by German and British companies, is one of the cases that gave Tanzania a great reputation.

The government terminated the contract with the company, and when the latter sued the government in International Dispute Resolution Courts, the government sent Mzee Mkono to defend it, and he returned with a victory.

The government lost other cases that followed, which were handled by other advocates or even state attorneys, and was required to pay millions of dollars. At least Nimrod Mkono will be remembered for winning cases over the ‘whites’ on their own soil. Mzee Mkono was, however, very complicated.

If he believed in his cause, he would not waver even if it could be harmful to him. In 2012, when I was chairman of the Parliamentary Committee on Accounts of Public Institutions, we launched a campaign to hold the government accountable, calling it Operation Accountability.

The Controller and Auditor General of that time issued his annual report, which revealed huge embezzlement of public funds by at least six ministries. The audit queries were serious, and we did not want to wait for the committee process before taking action.

We made a call to then-President Jakaya Kikwete to take steps to fire his ministers. The president took no action. We saw that we should remove the Prime Minister so that the whole government was disbanded.

According to the rules of Parliament, we were required to collect not less than 70 signatures in order to table a motion in Parliament about having no confidence in the Prime Minister. We collected 73 signatures, three of them from CCM lawmakers, including Musoma Rural MP Nimrod Elirehema Mkono, who was also a member of the party’s National Executive Committee (NEC). When we submitted our signatures to the Speaker, President Kikwete immediately sacked six ministers and two deputies.

Mzee Mkono knew that he was strongly going against his party by supporting a motion moved by the opposition. He also understood that without a strong person, the two CCM legislators who signed the petition—Deo Filikunjombe and Kangi Lugola—would have been expelled from the ruling party.

Mkono defended the two young MPs without caring about the negative outcomes. After the 2015 elections, Mkono started facing challenges in his work as an advocate.

His law firm started to collapse after losing many government contracts and deteriorating relations with the new administration.

Despite the fact that he had health issues due to his age, the events after 2015 contributed more to weakening him, and he was taken ill from 2018 until his death in the US. Go well, Mzee Nimrod Mkono. Many people have gone through your hands, especially in the legal fraternity.

You used to tell me that you were waiting for me to be president so that you could rest, but God has taken you earlier than that.

You have done what you should. The era has ended.

Go well advocate Nimrod Elirehema Mkono. You have left a legacy in the legal profession and in politics.

May You Rest in Eternal Peace! Amen.