In Vunjo, it is ‘battle royale’ of the titans

What you need to know:
- Mr James Mbatia, the NCCR-Mageuzi candidate, is seeking re-election while CCM’s Dr Charles Kimei, a seasoned banker, is venturing into politics., starting with Vunjo in Kilimanjaro Region.
Moshi. Six political parties have candidates contesting the Vunjo parliamentary constituency in the October 28 General Election. But, clearly, the fierce competition is between NCCR-Mageuzi and CCM.
Mr James Mbatia, the NCCR-Mageuzi candidate, is seeking re-election while CCM’s Dr Charles Kimei, a seasoned banker, is venturing into politics., starting with Vunjo in Kilimanjaro Region.
Mr Mbatia, who is an experienced politician, was first elected as a Member of the Parliament (MP) for Vunjo in the first multiparty General Election in 1995. Although he lost two consecutive elections, he bounced back in 2015 - and he has been doing everything possible to consolidate his hold on the constituency.
He launched the Vunjo Development Fund (VDF) to help raise funds and coordinate development activities in the constituency. The non-partisan VDF is credited for uniting Vunjo residents who had been divided along political lines.
However, the ruling party CCM has been claiming that Mr Mbatia has been using VDF to his political advantage.
Some stakeholders say the issue of VDF might hurt CCM in the campaigns.
Prof Willy Makundi, a resident in the constituency, says Vunjo residents raised funds through VDF for the construction of some rural roads, but local authorities blocked the move - and that did not augur well for many of the Vunjo residents.
Dr Kimei was chief executive officer and managing director of the CRDB Bank for 20 years. He retired from CRDB in 2018.
Before joining CRDB Bank, Dr Kimei worked for the Bank of Tanzania (BoT) for 20 years. However, despite his vast experience in the banking sector, he lacks political experience.
Dr Kimei faces an uphill task to win the election despite his party’s popularity because Vunjo has largely been dominated by the opposition. But, he has a formidable CCM campaign machinery behind him.
In fact, CCM is using his vast financial management experience in turning CRDB from a loss-making institution to one of the largest banks in the country as a selling point.
Before he expressed an intention to vie for the Vunjo constituency seat, Dr Kimei helped in the construction of the CRDB Bank branch and a Police Station at Marangu, part of Vunjo.
What stakeholders in Vunjo say
The CCM secretary in Kilimanjaro Region, Jonathan Mabihya, says the ruling party’s good track record in implementation of infrastructure and social service projects in Vunjo constituency is a good selling point in the campaigns. Roads have been constructed and water projects established.
“Economic activities in Vunjo have picked up in the past five years. And with Dr Kimei’s experience in the financial sector, we believe the economy will be even further stimulated in the next five years if he is elected,” Mr Mabihya told The Citizen recently.
But NCCR-Mageuzi’s Publicity Secretary, Hemed Msabaha, says building infrastructure and improving social services delivery in Vunjo was because of Mr Mbatia’s convincing power. “Our slogan in this election is: ‘In Vunjo, Mbatia is enough, others just make noises,’” Mr Msabaha says.
He adds: “This election is an easy ride for us. We just have to tell voters what we achievement together in the last five years and explain what more we are planning to in the next five years.”
Mr Msabaha adds that Vunjo residents have total faith in Mr Mbatia: “People of Vunjo do not care about political parties or ideologies. They only need somebody who would solve their problems and that person is Mr Mbatia.”
Despite fierce competition between the CCM and NCCR-Mageuzi candidates from other political parties are also in the ballot in Vunjo constituency.
These are TLP’s Augustino Mrema, Chadema’s Grace Kiwelu, ACT-Wazalendo’s Mfinanga Iddi Husein and AAFP’s Angelina Salewa.
Analysts say that the large number of opposition candidates can play into the hands of CCM by ‘dividing’ the votes.
Mr Mrema, a three times presidential candidate, is also a candidate to watch. Despite a significant decline in his influence, Mr Mrema has the potential to attract a lot of votes. For several decades, he had larger-than-life influence in the Vunjo constituency.
He ran for the MP seat in Moshi Rural constituency (precursor to Vunjo constituency) for the first time in 1985. His victory was challenged in court.
But Mrema, successfully, fought through appeals and was declared the election winner in 1987. He remained the MP for Moshi Rural till early 1995. Between 1990 and 1994 he was the minister for Home Affairs - and, as the Home Affairs minister, he had a penchant for melodrama in dealing with corruption in public service.
This arguably made him the most popular minister for Home Affairs in the country’s history. He was controversially removed from the Home Affairs portfolio and made minister for Labour. But a few months later - in February 1995 - he was fired from the cabinet and left the ruling CCM to join the opposition (NCCR-Mageuzi) weeks later.
He ran for the Presidency in 1995 - but lost to CCM’s candidate, the late Benjamin Mkapa. Despite his loss to CCM, Mrema was the most popular opposition candidate in the 1995 General Election. In 1996, he successfully ran for the Temeke constituency, after the victory of the CCM MP Ramadhani Kihiyo was challenged in court over fake academic certificates. (Kihiyo resigned for reasons of bad health before the case was completed).
Mr Mrema ran for the presidency again in 2000 and 2005 under Tanzania Labour Party (He had joined TLP in 1999 after a leadership wrangle within NCCR-Mageuzi).
Mr Mrema’s influence in Vunjo was such that James Mbatia, the NCCR-Mageuzi candidate in 1995, won easily. Mr Mbatia became MP for Vunjo in 1995 at the age of 31.
In 2000, Mr Mbatia lost to TLP candidate, Major Makundi. In 2005 the constituency went back to CCM. But in 2010, Mr Mrema, himself, was elected the MP for Vunjo under the TLP.
In 2015, however, Mr Mbatia made a comeback, largely due to the support of the coalition for opposition parties known in its Kiswahili acronym as Ukawa. The 2015 pitied the mentor (Mrema) against his former protégé (Mbatia). The protégé trounced the former mentor badly, with 60,187 votes against Mrema’s 6,416. CCM’s Innocent Meleck of CCM got 16,097 votes.
Another candidate who could attract some voters is Ms Kiwelu. She has been an MP (Women Special Seats-Chadema) for 15 years since 2005.
Issues dominating campaigns
The need for better health services has been dominating the campaigns. Candidates are promising the construction of a district hospital.
Prof Makundi says it is clear that voters would want to hear credible pledges on the establishment of the hospital to bring better health services closer to the people.
“People travel long distances to seek better medical services. This, to me, is the number one campaign issue,” Prof Makundi.
Road infrastructure is bad in some villages as well and the local authorities made it difficult to repair the roads using VDF funds.
Low coffee prices and embezzlement in cooperative societies is another hot issue in the campaigns.
Land conflicts, rampart use of illicit alcohol, armed robberies and smuggling are other issues that are featuring in the ongoing campaigns.