Mutungi ‘clueless’ on CUF

Dar es Salaam. Registrar of Political Parties Justice (rtd) Francis Mutungi (pictured) is trapped in the middle of what has fast degenerated into a violent and fierce power struggle in the Civic United Front (CUF), political analysts have observed.

In a round of interviews with The Citizen after last week’s dramatic flare-up between feuding CUF factions at a press conference in Dar es Salaam, analysts said the Registrar may have underestimated the opposition party’s turf war.

There seems to be consensus among observers that Mr Mutungi, who has been widely accused of choosing to meddle instead of resolving the CUF stalemate, is facing a difficult situation in ending the bloodletting.

“He was supposed to act as soon as the crisis broke out…he was wrong to let the situation spill out of control,” says University of Dar es Salaam senior political science lecturer Prof Mohamed Bakari.

“Now it is tricky because there are several cases which have been filed against him in the courts of laws.”

In the aftermath of last week’s press conference drama, and amid an avalanche of complaints against the controversial manner in which he had handled the CUF crisis, the Registrar said he would not hesitate to take action if the party’s bloodletting posed any threat to national security.

But analysts told The Citizen that the nation is now interested in seeing what action he would take against the feuding factions after the bloody scenes from last week’s press conference episode. According to Section 19 of the Political Parties Act, it is the Registrar’s duty to take action against, including deregistering, any political party whose activities threaten national security.

Granted, Mr Mutungi is now walking a fine line. The CUF faction led by the party’s secretary general Seif Shariff Hamad accuses him of working behind the scenes to support their rival, Prof Ibrahim Lipumba, who had the Registrar’s nod to resume his chairmanship. It was Prof Lipumba’s decision to rescind his resignation and reclaim the party’s chairmanship last year that thrust CUF into its current crisis.

Apparently, there is general skepticism among political analysts that Mr Mutungi can be an acceptable mutual arbiter.

Prof George Kuhangwa, chairman of the University of Dar es Salaam Academic Staff Assembly (Udasa), said the Registrar lost moral authority to resolve the crisis after he took sides. He urged Mr Mutungi to reconsider his position considering the questionable decisions he has made in the past

“The office of the Registrar stands accused of favouring the ruling party; now, it will be interesting to see how he will act to resolve this crisis.” Prof Bakari said Judge Mutungi made a mistake to take sides in the conflict. “As a custodian of political parties, Prof Mutungi was supposed to maintain neutrality.”

CUF members aligned to the party’s secretary general Hamad were incensed by Mr Mutungi after his decision to recognise Prof Lipumba as chairman, and disburse government subventions to the former World Bank economic adviser’s faction.

Addressing a press conference from the National Assembly in Dodoma last week, Temeke MP (CUF) Abdallah Mtolea accused the Registrar of clandestinely reinstating Prof Lipumba.

And at least 40 CUF legislators aligned to Mr Hamad threatened to lead their supporters during a ‘clean up’ exercise at the CUF Buguruni head offices in Dar es Salaam, after the attack on their colleagues.

“Our offices have been turned into a hideout of armed gangs who are being used in plotting bloody missions. That place is our party offices, and so we call on all our supporters to come with brooms and mops to clean it of all the dirt that’s there,” said Mr Mtolea.

Efforts to reach the Registrar were futile as his mobile phone was not reachable. However, early last week he condemned the attack on journalists at the CUF press conference.

Several journalists sustained minor injuries after a group of unidentified men wielding a pistol stormed the venue of the press conference before indiscriminately attacking everyone in the room.

In August last year, a fight broke out during a CUF extraordinary national congress that had been called to elect the new chairman. Although he was not a delegate to the meeting, Prof Lipumba forced his way in to the meeting. That did not help to stop the majority of delegates to vote in confirmation of his resignation. As expected, his supporters were angry. Chaos ensued.