I glimpsed the last portion of the presentation of the "Richmond" Probe Committee by Dr Harrison Mwakyembe on National TV. Hair at the back of my neck kind of ruffled out of excitement. Was I dreaming? Naah. It was real.
The following day, Thursday 7th, I totted my little transistor radio so as to catch a word when the parliament would open next day. When I turned it a few minutes after nine, there was PM's voice alright. He spoke long and hard about all politicians being media fodder, only this time they decided to go for PM head, "a wish I'll grant", he said. Then rang out what people had wanted to hear--"I've given the President the letter to request my resignation". The parliament hall went wild with applaud. That may have been the loneliest hour for the whitehead tycoon who had a degree in theatre arts--something I got to discover a few hours after that short speech: I googled 'Edward Lowassa' on my cellphone, the first page was Wikipedia entry. Lo and behold, just some four hours after the heavy statement, some bonafide Tanzanian had already updated the Wiki entry appropriately about rise and fall of EL as Tz PM.
The parliament was then adjourned until 5 pm because of the gravity of what had just taken place. Two other ministers--Karamagi and Msabaha--would also announce their intentions to resign that evening.
Thursday 7th Feb 08 night a milestone was entered in the Tanzania history when President Jakaya Kikwete accepted the resignation letter submitted by Edward Lowassa and, as per Tanzanian Constitution, dissolved the Cabinet.
On Friday 8th during the 5 pm parliament session, a new name proposed to parliament for PM was announced--Mizengo Pinda. He had been a deputy Minister responsible for Local Government but also a seasoned civil servant having served under Father of Nation J.K. Nyerere and all other presidents that followed. According to him, he left civil service only when the constituents at his home district requested him to run for parliament, which he did and won, and was now in second term as MP.
As I'm writing this post we are without Cabinet (until tomorrow Monday 11 Feb anyways, but many a Tanzanian are welcoming the trend of things lately in the Phase Four government of Jakaya Kikwete. Pray, we, Tanzania, are the only country in the neighbourhood left with peace and tranquility--Kenya having discarded that status in the botched presidential elections at the end of last year.
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