Why UK minister’s visit to Tanzania is a big deal

The United Kingdom’s Minister for Africa, Mr James Duddridge, started his official visit to Tanzania yesterday in renewed efforts to strengthen bilateral ties between the two countries.

A statement from the British High Commission in Dar es Salaam said yesterday that Mr Duddridge would be in Tanzania for two days during which he would hold high-level meetings with President Samia Suluhu Hassan and Foreign Affairs and East African Cooperation minister Liberata Mulamula.

He will also meet with Industry and Trade minister Kitila Mkumbo and his Investment counterpart, Mr Geoffrey Mwambe. On the second day of his visit (today), Mr Duddridge is scheduled to travel to Zanzibar where he is to meet with President Hussein Mwinyi and First Vice President Othman Masoud Othman.

The visit is the first of a UK Minister since 2019, and the first since President Hassan took office in March.

The statement quotes Mr Duddridge as saying: “I look forward to my discussions with the President and her government on our opportunities for cooperation including our work together with the business sector and how we collectively tackle global challenges including climate change and Covid-19”.

Relations between the two countries took a downward turn in the last six years that have seen the UK issue some statements that were meant to bring Tanzania back to what it (the UK) believed to be the tenets of good governance.

For instance, Mr Duddridge is himself on record as having issued a statement condemning the way Tanzania’s 2020 General Election was conducted.

He said being a longstanding supporter of Tanzania, the UK was concerned by widespread allegations of interference in the country’s elections, including pre-filled ballot boxes and party agents being denied entry to polling stations. The UK, he said, was also deeply troubled by the reports of violence and heavy-handed policing in the elections, including the arrest of opposition political leaders.

“Tanzania’s future stability and prosperity require a credible democratic process, underpinned by a free media…,” he said.

With what was largely viewed as a deteriorating human rights record and government’s crackdown on freedom of expression during the past six years, coupled with economic challenges in the UK due to the Covid-19 pandemic, The Citizen understands that the European nation’s Official Development Assistance (ODA) to Tanzania will drop by significantly during the 2021/22 financial year. During the 2020/21 financial year, the UK pledged 89 million sterling pounds in ODA to finance 15 projects. However, that amount is expected to be lower by over half during the coming financial year.

With a drop in ODA, seven of the 15 UK-funded projects in Tanzania will close down while the remaining eight – in areas of civil service, serious organized crime, girl education, economic development and trade, climate change and family planning - will have their budget cut considerably.

The fact that the Covid-19 pandemic will also be discussed during Mr Duddridge’s visit suggests that the UK may now be willing to cooperate with Tanzania, following President Hassan’s repeated utterances that the country was not an island and therefore, the need to cooperate with others in the fight against the global pandemic.

It is anticipated that while Tanzania’s approach to the Covid-19 fight had been strange and different from all other countries in the world during the past two years, the meeting may see the country adopting what others have done, including a possibility of going for the Covid-19 Vaccines Global Access (Covax) programme.

The Covax programme – which is backed by the World Health Organisation (WHO) and other multilateral bodies - aims to supply 600 million doses to Africa, enough to vaccinate at least 20 percent of the population.

President Hassan has already formed a team of experts that will advise her on steps that Tanzania should take in its fight against the virus.

A visit to Tanzania and meeting with President Hussein Mwinyi and First Vice President Othman Masoud Othman suggests a walk in the right direction for relations between the two countries.

This is based on the fact that High Commissioners and Ambassadors from the UK, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, the European Union, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United States in Tanzania issued a statement in February 2016, condemning the annulment of the 2015 Presidential Election in Zanzibar by the Zanzibar Electoral Commission.

“We reiterate our concern with the Zanzibar Electoral Commission’s decision to annul the election of October 25, 2015, without having provided evidence to substantiate its claim that irregularities had taken place, and despite the positive assessments of electoral observation missions conducted by the Commonwealth Secretariat, the African Union, the Southern African Development Community, the East African Community, the European Union, and the United States of America.

The diplomats said they regretted that an election re-run was announced, while a dialogue between parties was still ongoing.

“We are deeply concerned that the unilateral declaration of a re-run may lead to an escalation of intimidation and tensions. We commend the population of Zanzibar for having exercised calm and restraint to this date, and call on all parties and their supporters to continue to work together towards finding a peaceful solution,” the statement read, aiming to overcome the political impasse.