Tanzania: Zitto Kabwe , Three Others Stripped of Duties

Chadema national chairman Freeman Mbowe (R) speaks at a press conference in Dar es Salaam yesterday. (Photo: Omary Fungo)

CHADEMA Deputy Secretary General , Zitto Kabwe has been stripped of all his duties following allegations of gross misconduct to party ethics.

This was announced during a press conference in Dar es Salaam by the newly appointed Party Legal Advisor, Mr Tundu Lissu saying that apart from Zitto Kabwe, ethe measures affected three other senior CHADEMA officials and were with immediate effect.

"These actions are a result of evidence from a document of people calling themselves 'Network of Winners' that mentions Zitto Kabwe who is referred to as MM, Dr Kitilla Mkumbo as M1, Samson Mwigamba as M3 and a yet unknown person who is referred to as M2 and mentioned to be in a Party Secretariat at the headquarters," he said.

Mr Lissu vowed that the party would leave no stone unturned in an effort to identify the fourth person and that appropriate action would be taken irrespective of who the person is or the position he or she holds in the party.

He described the actions of the four officials as amounting to treason where they are alleged to strategise on ways of creating divisions in the party and to remove the party from being an answer to the problems of the common man.

"This strategising isn't the way of making changes in the leadership of the party, but rather one of hijacking the party and killing it. It is for this reason that the authors of this document stated that they needed to implement the strategy in utmost secrecy such that the head of the party continues to be complacent and the language used in the document is unique," he said.

Mr Lissu said that it was the firm belief of the Central Committee (CC), that sat between November 20 and November 22 this year, that if the intentions of bringing changes in the party were genuine, then the document wouldn't suggest that meetings be conducted infrequently and in secluded areas and if possible outside the country.

The CC decided, apart from stripping the four members of their duties, to set up a team of the party secretariat members and CC members to investigate and unearth the identity of M2 and to persuade the Parliamentary Committee to act quickly and remove Mr Kabwe from being the Deputy Opposition Leader in the National Assembly.