Don hails Kabudi’s nomination as MP

 Dar es Salaam. Speculations on imminent Cabinet reshuffle has greeted President John Magufuli’s nomination as MPs Prof Palamagamba Kabudi and Mr Abdallah Bulembo.

The nomination of the two has triggered among political analysts speculation that one of them, or even both, are being readied for positions in the JPM Cabinet.

The nomination is the second in as many weeks for Prof Kabudi who was recently tapped by President Magufuli to chair the board of directors of the TIB Investment Bank.

The MP position is Prof Kabudi’s direct foray into politics but the law professor is known to have been a trusted adviser to the ruling party and the government from behind the scene. He will now be thrust into the forefront should he be handed a significant role in the government.

It is widely consented that if Prof Kabudi is appointed minister, few, if any among those who know him, will be surprised, for he is generally described as one of most outstanding Tanzanians in the positions in which he has served. Efforts yesterday to reach him for comment on the news of his nomination were futile but those who know him offered glowing tribute to the working ethics of the law don.

“I can vouch for him as one of the strongest legal hands and most competent persons Tanzania has ever produced. But of greater significance is that Prof Kabudi is an excellent person when it comes to public relations. This means he can work in any position and assist in positive transformation of the society,” said Prof Rwekaza Mukandala of University of Dar es Salaam.

Prof Mukandala noted that Prof Kabudi is one of the people who have tremendously transformed, not only the Faculty of Law, but also the way the entire University of Dar es Salaam operates.

Prof Mukandala, the UDSM Vice Chancellor who has closely worked with Prof Kabudi over the years, says the newly nominated MP is a person who can express himself well under any circumstance, which gives him the advantage in that he can explicitly and efficiently express complex issues to people of different background and be understood.

He also described Prof Kabudi as a person competent in sociology, which will give him an added advantage in his new capacity of representing Tanzanians in the law-making organ. He is often referred to as an ‘encyclopedia’ of the greater East Africa region and surrounding countries.

Prof Kabudi, who once served for eight years as a Board Member with the Mwananchi Communications Limited (MCL), the publisher of The Citizen, Mwananchi and MwanaSpoti, has ample experience in socio-economic transformation of, not only Tanzania, but of entire East Africa region. He graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in Law at UDSM in 1983 before attaining his Master’s in the same discipline at the same university in 1986. He went for a PhD in Law at Germany’s Freie University in Berlin, where he graduated in 1995.

He is currently serving as Registrar of the Anglican Church of Tanzania and  member of the St John’s University Council.