CURFEW TRAFFIC JAMS: Nairobi motorists were on Saturday night stranded as police blocked major roads AFTER curfew time. Photo The Star

Interior CS Fred Matiang'i is set to appear before a Senate committee over the confusion and chaos marring enforcement of curfew in Nairobi and elsewhere.

The Senate’s National Security and Foreign Relations committee has invited the CS to appear before it next Wednesday to explain the mayhem.

'Super Minister' Matiang'i s known for ignoring and snubbing MPs' requests and summonses to appear and explain pressing issues. 

The meeting follows a public outcry after the police enforcing the 8pm to 4am curfew in Nairobi blocked some motorists past curfew from going home.

Motorists on Thika Superhighway were the most affected by police roadblocks. Many motorists spent the night in the cold.

“Following the enormous public outcry through social media, Members of the Committee were greatly perturbed by the chaotic scenes on Saturday April 17 and Sunday April 18 along the Thika Superhighway regarding the overnight roadblocks,” acting Chairperson Fred Outa said.

To get a clearer perspective regarding the 'mayhem', the committee has invited the Interior CS to appear before it, he said.

In a statement on Tuesday, he said police hindered the travel of approved persons holding legal permits to operate during curfew hours.

They include doctors, ambulances, food transporters, media personnel and government workers approved to operate.

Nairobi is among the five counties in disease hot zones where an 8pm to 4pm curfew has been imposed to help contain the spread of Covid-19.

Others are Kiambu, Kajiado, Machakos and Nakuru. Countrywide, curfew runs from 10pm until 4am.

Outa said the committee was concerned with the unfolding events and asked aloud whether police have established "kangaroo courts" to punish Kenyans.

“.. and if so, under which law?" he asked.

“If Kenyans have indeed broken the law, then why not charge them and have them appear before the courts and face punishment according to the law?” he asked.

Matiang'i will be asked to explain why police have "have subjected Kenyans to operate in panic, resulting in several accidents that have occurred, emanating from their actions",

He will also will also  be asked to explain an apparent lack of coordination in enforcement in the capital. - Julius Otieno, The Star

By FREDDY MACHA

President Joseph Pombe Magufuli died. It was sudden and cruel and shocking and provided two opposite thoughts. One shouted negativity. Accused. Mentioned all sorts of things. Charged Magufuli was this and that. This article is interested with the second voice. The emotional...that screamed, leaped and yelled. 

He did a lot for our business, cried a Machinga trader at Kariakoo Market Dar es Salaam. Machingas are street vendors, self- employed hand to mouth small time traders who felt valued under the Government of John Pombe Magufuli...since 2015. Across Tanzania, Machingas have always been vilified like hunted wildebeest in Serengeti plains.

So then... Wamachinga are a good measure of the grass-root panorama ...the emotion of the Magufuli passing. 

Citing ones in the Mwenge area, Angela Charles, a young Machinga interviewed live by  Simulizi na Sauti Online TV eulogised:

“ I feel hurt, I feel hurt, I feel very hurt. I have not much to add but ask for God to rest his soul in peace. He was a President who cared for us small traders and people on the lower extremities with no voice...words fail me and I have no words. I feel very very hurt. When I heard this news. I was shocked.  He was a President who cared. When he came to power he gave us an opportunity.” 

Angela said she had been trading for two years. She recalled before 2015, Machingas used to be kicked off the streets. “ He said please do not harass Machingas. He made sure we had valid identity cards and permits. So trading became smooth for us... he was a very different president who loved God, a  man of the people who feared God. He was a very, very different President. I don't know how to describe him...” 

This view was not only in Dar es Salaam but other major towns, too. A Jamhuri area Machinga in Dodoma for example declared many young people's lives improved.  They could make money and buy land and construct small houses.

“Many youths are shocked and saddened...and hope and request the new President shall continue supporting us,” he said. 

 This is just a small example of the running emotions after the unexpected departure of the CCM leader aged 61 on 17^th March 2021. Then there were five, innocent deaths.

Five members of one family, mostly children were caught up in the tumult and crowd mayhem to say farewell to the body of the President at the Dar es Salaam International Nyerere Airport. 

Speaking to BBC Swahili, Dennis Mtuwa, said his wife, two children and their two cousins did not return. The house-girl accompanying them could not be found. The social media resembled a busy traffic jam throughout the week of 17^th March. 2021.

Clips did not stop circulating. The most popular one was of a Prophetic Magufuli telling his audience, “you shall remember me. Not for the bad things, but the good things I have done. Because I love my country...” 

Another was of Magufuli addressing the issue of mining. Riches of the nation returning to Tanzanians.  “They do not like me...they feel envious...they feel jealous...they feel hurt.” He shouted. This particular clip had English titles. 

What about outside Tanzania? 

One African country claimed to have been saddened by God. That prayers for the demise of their dictator leader, who has been loading it over them, the said African country for decades, to die had not materialised. Instead of the dictator being taken by God, Magufuli, a President they had wished for, had been snuffed out by heart failure.

Mmmh. 

The general consensus across Africa was whether we could have other leaders like John Pombe Magufuli. Back in 2017 barely two years after John Pombe Magufuli's leadership, Kenya's Professor PL Lumumba called for “hygiene in African politics...” 

Speaking at the Nkrumah hall, University of Dar es Salaam, Professor Lumumba declared the continent needs to see the “Magufulification of Africa.” Magufuli's emotional departure brought back memories of other sudden political deaths. Beginning with then Minister and poet, Sheikh Amri Abeid Kaluta who died in 1964, three years after Tanzania's Uhuru.  Today the Arusha stadium is named after him. 

Then two significant assassinations. 

 Dr Wilbert Kleruu, then Regional Commissioner of Iringa, shot dead by a dissatisfied farmer, Said Mwamindi on Christmas day, 1971. Mwamindi was later hanged. Dr Kleruu was one of the early fatalities of the Arusha Declaration. A tenet and ideology that wanted land and its riches to be equally shared by the Tanzanian population.  A tenet dear to President John Pombe Magufuli. 

The following year, April 1972, Zanzibar's then President Sheikh Abeid Karume was gunned while relaxing, playing Bao, a board game, with other politicians, at Afro Shiraz Party (ASP).

Next shocking casualty was Edward Sokoine. This Maasai born, no nonsense, 45- year- old Prime Minister, was whispered to be the next President after Mwalimu. Like Magufuli,  Edward Moringe Sokoine had a reputation for fighting Fisadis, i.e.  corruption and inept politics.  Sokoine died in a mysterious traffic accident on his way from Dodoma to Dar es Salaam in 1984. 

To keep his torch alight members of his family have created the Sokoine Memorial Foundation to highlight the values of truthfulness, transparency and good leadership, which Sokoine was well known for.

“The  Foundation envisions Tanzania that is a just nation with sustainable economic development and dignified future for her people.” 

-Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. 

Freddy Macha is a Tanzanian born, London based writer and musician.

By JULIUS MBALUTO

Sarah Ikumu has released a new single, titled ‘Waiting’. Its’ out and available in all music platforms now. Sarah says ‘Waiting’ will be one of the four songs from her upcoming E.P ‘Broken Promises’

The rising star started singing at her young age. She sang at Church which her dad pastored. After relocating to Kenya in 2011, she sang at school concerts and when she came back to the UK in 2013, she carried on singing. She competed in singing competition and won.

Sarah was later discovered by Artiste development company and was asked to audition for British Got Talent. During the audition, she sang so well exciting all Judges and it was Simon Cow who pressed the famous Golden Buzzer to show appreciation.

Sarah shared that after that, she got big exposure. She sang at Apollo Theatre in the US hosted by Celebrity Steve Harvey. She has since performed in front of many celebrities and in different countries like Abu Dhabi, US, Switzerland and Dominica Republic. In London, she once performed in front of 20,000 people.

Asked what music meant to her, Sarah replied:

“Music means everything to me. It makes you happy. It has healing powers. I get lots of messages from people with different messages for example, ‘ Your music helped me when I was going through a tough time”

Sarah’s praises her parents always for the positive role they played in her life. She says her parents were there for her all times. They took her for vocal training, her mum entered her into competitions and they were both always there to support her.

Sarah reminds us that we also have to work hard to get what we want in life. To parents she says:

“If your child loves something, support them, I would not be where I am where it not for my parents’ support.”

Jesuit Refugee Service Kenya has added its voice to that of the nation’s Bishops in calling on the Kenyan government to keep the Dadaab and Kakuma refugee camps open.

In a statement issued on Monday, JRS-Kenya “reaffirms the appeal from the Kenya Conference of Catholic Bishops and recommends that the Government of Kenya exert maximum forethought and caution in this particular time of uncertainty, wisely considering the legal obligations imposed by international law and the Organization of African Unity (OAU) Convention.”

The statement urges the Kenyan government to bear in mind the principle of non-refoulment (guaranteeing “that no one should be returned to a country where they would face torture, cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment and other irreparable harm), as well as “the practical limitations” of closing the camps, and the “moral obligation to take care of the most vulnerable in society and to pursue the common good.”

The Jesuit Refugee Service’s statement echoes the appeal earlier this month of the Kenyan Bishops, which acknowledged Kenya’s efforts to host and protect refugees and asylum seekers. “This has been a good gesture to these people who felt they are a lot safer in Kenya,” they say. However, the Bishops continue, “it is highly unfortunate and regrettable that the intention by the Kenyan authorities to close the Dadaab and Kakuma Refugee camps within a short timeframe comes at a time that these people need help.”

There are more than 410,000 people in the two camps, including women, children, and the elderly. The camps host forcibly displaced people from Somalia, South Sudan, the Great Lakes region in Africa, and the Tigray region in Ethiopia.

Calling for a comprehensive approach to the “complex refugee situation” in the country, the Kenyan Bishops Conference recommends the government shelve the “unfortunate idea” of closing the camps, and instead “increase security and any other support to the refugees as well as the bodies that work directly with them in ensuring they receive their basic needs.”

The appeal concludes by calling on the government to “treat all refugees with care and concern especially during this period of the Covid-19 pandemic when humanity is faced with serious economic and psychological challenges.” By Tommaso Pozzi, Catholic Herald