SANF 05 No 121
Jakaya Mrisho Kikwete has been in public service for more than 30 years and will continue for at least the next five years as the fourth president of the United Republic of Tanzania.
Kikwete, 55, becomes one of the youngest leaders in east and southern Africa when he takes over from the incumbent, Benjamin William Mkapa, who has served for two terms since 1995.
Kikwete, who swept more than 80 percent of the popular vote in the 14 December elections on the ticket of Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM), emerged from the youth wing of the party and has strong support from the youth in the country.
During the party nominations in May 2005, Mkapa made it clear that it was necessary to nominate a young contestant who could appeal to the younger generation.
Kikwete was a popular choice, having run a close second to Mkapa as the youth candidate in the CCM selection 10 years earlier.
The new president is a long-time party cadre who served as Mkapa’s Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation for the past decade. He has been in cabinet since 1988 and was previously Minister of Finance and Minister of Energy and Minerals.
He has been a member of the CCM National Executive Committee since 1982, and a member of the Central Committee for the past nine years.
Mkapa will remain as chairperson of the party for a period of 12-18 months, and then it would be expected that Kikwete would take over the top job, although it is not automatic.
Born in Msoga village in the historic Bagamoyo district of the Coast region on 7 October 1950, Kikwete belongs to a very small ethnic group, out of the more than 120 ethnic groups that make up the United Republic of Tanzania. He holds a BA in economics from the University of Dar es Salaam.
He started party work as an assistant secretary, becoming a principal assistant secretary in the party and then head of defence and security at district level, before rising to a regional party executive secretary.
He served in the national defence forces, starting as lieutenant, promoted to captain in 1979 and lieutenant-colonel in 1991. He became the chief political instructor of the Tanzania People’s Defence Forces in 1984 and is now their Commander-in-Chief.
Kikwete’s nomination as presidential candidate was the culmination of a unique selection process within CCM, whose first leader was the late Mwalimu Julius Nyerere.
Nyerere created the United Republic of Tanzania on 26 April 1964 by bringing together into a union the newly independent countries of Tanganyika and Zanzibar.
The Union has had two heads of state after Nyerere, “the father of the nation” who led the country to independence in 1961. He stood down in 1985 after establishing a multiparty political system.
CCM selected its presidential candidate in a carefully considered process that involved the selection of one person from a field of 11, based on qualities such as the ability to promote and protect national unity, peace and stability and boldness in fighting injustice and oppression.
Ten years after he emerged from the party youth wing to contest the leadership for the first time, Kikwete stayed the course to win the nomination in a majority decision of an Extraordinary General Meeting of the party in Dodoma on 4 May 2005.
Each competing candidate had to submit nomination papers by 15 April containing 250 signatures of CCM members in at least 10 regions of the country, including two from Zanzibar.
The selection process involved deliberations of the party Central Committee and its ethics committee to reduce the 11 contestants to five, followed by a vote in the National Executive Committee to further reduce the number to three.
The 1,675 delegates to the Extraordinary General Meeting then voted for the candidate of their choice and, urged by their chairperson to choose a candidate who could appeal to the youth, gave Kikwete a clear majority with 1,072 votes in the first round, avoiding the need for a run-off.
Soon after receiving his party’s nomination, Kikwete pledged to implement the CCM manifesto which prioritises the fast-tracking of economic development to achieve 10 percent growth in Gross Domestic Product (GDP) by 2010, up from the current 6.7 percent.
The manifesto, which contains a number of ambitious economic projects and gives priority to scientific research and development as well as tourism, also calls for an active front in the fight against poverty.
“We should adhere to the call by the Father of the Nation, Mwalimu Nyerere, that we must run while others walk,” the manifesto says, echoing a famous statement by the founding president that became the title of a well-known biography.
