Trainee ‘herbalist’ attacks Kikwete ahead of 2005 polls

Dar es Salaam. The 2005 General Election in Tanzania Mainland attracted lots of attention as President Benjamin Mkapa was winding up his second five-year term in office.
Things were not that much different in Zanzibar after the process of the elections were announced to get underway.
The ruling Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM) party had set criteria for those interested in vying for the presidency on its ticket.
The first set criteria required a contestant to have extensive experience of leading the nation based on his/her wide leadership knowledge in government, public and institutional activities.
They must also be upright, humorous, wise and who have acquired a university education or equivalent to that.
They were also required to have a great vision and aptitude of maintaining, strengthening and developing the Union between Tanganyika and Zanzibar, national unity, the country’s peace and tranquillity including the national solidarity.
Another criteria required a contestant to have vision and act quickly, not to be swayed, capable of making a wise decision at the right time about sensitive and key issues to the nation so that he/she would be a strong link between Tanzania and the entire world.

Dictatorial characters
Another criteria required a contestant not to be a person with dictatorial or fascist characters, but a person who respected and protected the country’s constitution, laws, good governance, regulations and procedures.
The contestants were also required to be defenders of the marginalised, who respected human rights, who keenly observed the prosperity of all citizens and who did not crave for personal popularity.
As if that were not enough, CCM set another criteria that required the contestant to be at the forefront of knowing, defining, defending and implementing the policies of CCM and its election manifestos.
The contestant was also required to be just and courageous in fighting against all evils in the country and should not be the one to use his/her leadership position to accumulate wealth for themselves.
The party also insisted that the contestant must be a person, who was generally accepted by the citizens and who was serious about the accountability of leaders/executives and who would not tolerate negligence in carrying out their duties so to promote work discipline, productivity and efficiency.
On February 27, Tanzania Foreign Affairs minister Jakaya Kikwete announced to pick forms in order to vie for the country’s top seat.
He said: “I have decided to contest the country’s top position (the presidency) because I have decided to use my democratic right as a citizen of Tanzania in accordance with the constitution of our country. I believe I have the required merits.”
Despite announcing that, Mr Kikwete was not the first person to pick forms for contesting the presidency as the first one to have already done so was John Malecela on February 27.
On February 28, 2005 Tanzania’s Ambassador to Switzerland, Mr Ali Abeid Karume, the younger brother to President Amani Karume of Zanzibar, was his turn to collect forms to contest the presidency of the United Republic of Tanzania.  On March 1, Dr Salim Ahmed Salim was the fifth person to collect forms to vie for the presidency after Prof Mark Mwandosya and Prime Minister Frederick Sumaye had done so.  Mr Kikwete picked forms on March 4 to start his long journey of finding trustees and asking CCM to give him a chance of contesting the presidency on the CCM ticket during the October polls. A total of 11 CCM members collected forms for contesting the presidency of the United Republic of Tanzania.
On the list were John Shibuda, Iddi Simba, John Malecela, Balozi Ali Karume, Prof Mwandosya, Dr Salim, Dr Abdallah Kigoda, Balozi Patrick Chokala, Dr William Shija, Kikwete and Sumaye.
The deadline of returning the forms by the CCM 11 members, who were seeking the party’s nomination to contest Tanzania’s presidency, ended at 4pm on April 15. Mr Kikwete returned his on March 30.
However, the CCM Central Committee met on May 3 to screen the names of presidential contestants so to remain with five names that were presented before the party’s General Meeting on May 4 to pick CCM’s presidential flagbearer, who was challenged by other presidential contestants from the opposition parties.
In Zanzibar, only two members of CCM stepped forward to contest the presidency of Zanzibar. They were Amani Abeid Karume and Chief Minister Dr Mohamed Gharib Bilal.
During the night of May 2, the CCM Central Committee, after setting 13 criteria, met and selected five names of presidential contestants.
The five names were presented before the National Executive Committee (NEC) of CCM for voting.
However, the name of one of the country’s veteran politicians, who happened to be the vice chairman of CCM on Tanzania Mainland, John Malecela, was dropped.
Those whose names sailed through were Mr Kikwete, Dr Kigoda, Mr Sumaye, Prof Mwandosya and Dr Salim.
One day after, on May 3, NEC members cast their votes to pick CCM’s sole presidential flagbearer.
However, in the end Mr Kikwete was nominated as CCM’s presidential flagbearer, who scored a landslide victory with 1,072 votes out of 1,670 votes cast.
Dr Salim Ahmed Salim collected 476 votes while Prof Mwandosya garnered 122 votes. At least four out of 1,674 votes cast were spoilt.
So, the results of the nomination meant that Kikwete was ready to face other presidential contestants from the opposition.
The opposition contestants were Paul Kyara of the Sauti ya Umma (SAU) party, Prof Ibrahim Lipumba of the Civic United Front (CUF) party, Emmanuel Makaidi of the National League for Democracy (NLD) party and Freeman Mbowe of the Chama cha Demokrasia na Maendeleo (Chadema) party.
The other presidential challengers to Mr Kikwete were Mr Augustine Mrema of the Tanzania Labour Party (TLP),  Rev. Christopher Mtikila of Democratic Party (DP), Sengondo Mvungi of the National Convention for Construction and Reform-Mageuzi (NCCR-Mageuzi) party, Anna Senkoro of the Progressive Tanzania-Maendeleo (PPT-Maendeleo) party and Leonard Shayo of the Demokrasia Makini party.
Although presidential campaigns were successfully conducted, an unusual event occurred when Mr Kikwete was on stage addressing a rally in the City of Mwanza.
The incident was overshadowed by ‘superstitious’ beliefs when Mr Kikwete was attacked by a trainee practising traditional healing during the latter’s inauguration as the Chief of the Sukuma tribe.
However, Lucas Omahe Garani,29, and his traditional healing trainer were arrested by Mwanza Regional Police Commander Zelothe Steven for conspiracy and taking part in attacking Mr Kikwete.
It came to be revealed that Garani had the guts to attack Mr Kikwete after being given a magical gourd in the morning of the material day before a rally was held at the CCM Kirumba Stadium. It was claimed that Garani was forced to divorce his wife after being told that his star was blocking him from learning traditional procedures.
Garani was receiving training from his trainer, who was a resident of Nyakabungo Ward in the City of Mwanza.
Garani said although he was engaged in traditional medicine, he was the garden designer of the Victoria Nyanza Diocese of the Anglican Church of Tanzania.
The arrested man also claimed that, through the customs and traditions of his ethnic group, he was the chief of the Kurya tribe.
“Initially, when we carried out a body search on him, we found two amulets on him. One amulet was white and the other was black, which, he said, were given to him by his traditional healer.
“He wore a cap inside which he kept incense. We also found two traditional healing bungles on him,” said RPC Zelothe.
However, Mr Kikwete continued with his presidential campaign to the end.
The General Election was set for October 30, but did not take place either.

Why did the polls not take place on October 30 as planned? Don’t miss tomorrow’s edition.