Kinana attracting big attention as probable kingmaker

Dar es Salaam. Who is Abdulraham Omari Kinana? How influential is he in CCM’s politics? Is he really the kingmaker that he is thought to be? How would he pull off the next General Election for CCM?

These are some of the questions that trend in social media and which journalists struggle to answer in a new wave of increased coverage on the man, triggered by his ongoing upcountry tour.

It’s not that the man is a total mystery. He is the secretary General of CCM, who prefers traversing the country holding political rallies and carrying out populist gestures such as engaging in manual labour in farms and construction projects, than sitting in the office devouring paper work.

He also has a penchant for criticizing, in public, the performance of government officials, including Cabinet ministers.

But despite being the face of CCM and in spite of constantly being in the media limelight, Mr Kinana’s real clout in the CCM’s political machine has been hard to fathom. If anything he seems to have transcended the role of a CCM ‘bureaucrat’ employed to run day to day activities in the party.

His ongoing tour of Dodoma, Arusha and Kilimanjaro region, which started a fortnight ago, has generated more than usual coverage because of the well-publicized photos of him carrying pails of water, working in farms with bare hands and participating in construction projects.

Since taking on as Secretary General in 2012 Mr Kinana’s first task was to “revive” the party and prepare it to compete in the 2015 General Election.

But the dilemma that Mr Kinana met, and which partly explains his working style, was how to revive the ruling party whose government had failed to deliver.

In his initial tours of the country Mr Kinana was visibly overwhelmed by a litany of problems; interminable land conflicts that have led to the death of hundreds of peasants and livestock keepers, poor or non-existent educational and health services in rural areas, impassable roads, poor access to portable water, rampart corruption, human rights abuse carried out by security forces and lack of market for crops, among other problems.

Mr Kinana took to criticizing and lecturing, in public, government officials, including cabinet ministers who failed to perform.

To send a message that CCM had not lost touch with the people Mr Kinana also has also made a point of participating in manual labour wherever he went in the country. Critics say Mr Kinana seems to have failed to decipher what role the ruling party should play in the implementation of its Manifesto.

They say criticizing government ministers and other senior officials for failing to perform is assuming the role of an opposition party. Defending his working style Mr Kinana says what he is doing to to fulfil the role of helping the government implement the party manifesto. “We must understand that there are some individual government officials who are not fulfilling their responsibilities. If we do not call them out people would think it is the whole government that has failed to deliver,” Mr Kinana told Political Plaform in January.

There is no question that Mr Kinana, 64, is a savvy political operative who has mastered the art of CCM politics, and who was brought to the fore by the party chairman, President Jakaya Kikwete to revive the CCM’s dwindling fortunes.

But observers say in the past he has performed the role of a kingmaker, charting the way for CCM flagbearers. Recently President Kikwete hinted at the role of Mr Kinana in his path to the presidency.

“Mr Kinana called me in 1995 and asked me if I had talked to a certain party elder about taking nomination forms… he was keen to see that I took the forms,” President Kikwete said in Songea at CCM’s 38th anniversary celebration. He was complimenting Mr Kinana for doing a good job for the party. Mr Kinana went on to become President Kikwete’s campaign manager in both the 2005 and 2010 presidential elections.

CCM’s members and supporters have pinned their hopes on the man. Observers and stakeholders are waiting and see how he would manage to control the fierce presidential nomination contest and how he would coordinate the General Election campaign.

CCM insiders have high expectations. “All that time, even when he served as the campaign manager in two general elections, Mr Kinana had operated with the fringes of the party. But he is now at the centre of events as the secretary general. The opposition would be take heed,” CCM Publicity Secretary Nape Nnauye said recently.

Mr Nnauye added that the opposition would have a run for their money this time because the most ardent CCM field general is at the helm. Other observers have mixed opinion of whether the man could save CCM this time given the huge decline in popularity of the party.

A University of Dar es Salaam (UDSM) lecturer in Political Science and Public Administration, Richard Mbunda says the success of Mr Kinana in pulling off this year’s General Election for CCM would depend on whether he has answers to the questions that beliger the party; from grand corruption to failing to fulfil some of its campaign promises.

“The government is taking some actions on corruption. It also fulfills some of its promises. Can Mr Kinana move on from criticizing government officials to sheding light on what is being done?” Mr Mbunda said.

He also said Kinana’s criticis should not disregard the importance of the theatrics in his tours.

“His peculiar style in his upcountry tours is a crowdpuller and there are a lot of people who would be swayed by this. In fact most people do not care about issues, they follow events,” Mr Mbunda added.

Bashiru Ali, a UDSM lecturer in Political Science and Public Administration, said Mr Kinana’s tours could amoung to nothing if they were not stratergic.

“He should concentrate on those areas that are opposition’s stronghold and cultivate on the opposition’s weakenss in consillidating grassroot support,” Mr Ali noted.

The most difficult part for Mr Kinana is on how to answer people’s queries on unfulfilled promises. Whenever he encountered those questions in his many tours he has been calling on responsible government officials in the area to explain. Some of them ended up being booed by the people in the rallies.

“It is important that Mr Kinana’s rhetoric is matched by tangible results on the ground. If not people will stop taking him serious. And the best CCM could do is to sack all those officials who are a burden to the party,’ Prof George Shumbusho from Mzumbe University says. Ulterior motives

Mr Kinana is not known to harbor presidential ambitions, but of late his long trips in the regions have made many guessing as to the motive of constant forays into the hinterland. As a CCM leader, he had defended the party from criticisms from the opposition, mostly directed to the government in power. He has to remind the CCM followers of what they are expected to do in the face of poor performance of the government.

Whether his strong stance against graft and non-performing state agencies is a veiled propaganda by the ruling party to win massive support from wananchi or mere commitment to national ideals, remains a guess. There has been a debate on why the CCM secretary general has made extensive trips across the country unlike his predecessors.

The trips have taken him practically in all corners of the country where he had addressed multitudes of people in the full blaze of the electronic media and newspaper scribes. An Arusha-based political recently challenged the media to make a close ‘look’ on the trips and whether they have something to do with the succession battles in this year’s General Election.

“By the way is this man not going to vie for the highest political post in the country,” wondered a Tanzanian working with the East African Community (EAC) where Mr Kinana served as the Speaker of the Regional Parliament until 2007.

The official admitted he had been increasingly ‘concerned’ as to the motive of the unprecedented trips with full coverage of the local media; both private and those sympathetic to the government.

But an Arusha resident with connections to the ruling class and the opposition alike says the rallies organized by CCM and addressed by Kinana have to some extent injected a new confidence to the ruling party.

“In recent years, the CCM meetings have been shunned even by its members. Many of its followers and wananchi in general appear to have lost faith with the government especially because of graft claims”, he told Political Platform on condition of anonymity.

Elsewhere, particularly in Arusha where he was born, groomed and worked for years, Kinana is perceived as a politician who has exhibited strong leadership skills.

“He is soft-spoken but always firm,” affirmed William Lobulu, a regional analyst and publisher based in Arusha and who knew the CCM secretary general since their old school days of the 1960s and 1970s.

Reporterd by Damas Kanyabwoya, Kelvin Matandiko and Zephania Ubwani