President Kikwete Marks His Fourth Year As Great Peace Maker

AS President Jakaya Kikwete marks his fourth year in office today, the pillar of reconciliation of the Zanzibar longstanding political rivalry between his ruling Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM) on the island and the Civic United Front (CUF) stands boldly behind him as a sterling achievement.

The recent glorious hand shakes of the CUF's strongman Seif Sharif Hamad and Zanzibar President Amani Abeid Karume, political rivals hitherto blinded by fierce animosity for each other, may not have produced a tangible peace agreement, but their posture is no longer that of daggers drawn.

President Kikwete being the national chairman of CCM, it is unthinkable that such a national feat could have been pulled without his knowledge or involvement albeit remote. The meaning is that the doors, which were slammed shut and remained closed in the hostility time, have once more been flung open for progressive and friendly discussions.

The national political future is brighter and Mr Kikwete deserves accolades for the hopeful turnaround. The fight between CCM and CUF in Zanzibar has been raging for years, torn and stained by mistrust between the two parties.

Since the last general elections in 2005 the two camps have been looking daggers at each other, the chief bone of contention being the alleged flawed polls that CUF alleges put the CCM presidential candidate Amani Abeid Karume in power.

This accusation did not start with the 2005 General Election and a couple of Kikwete's predecessors had to reckon with it. The third-phase president Mr Benjamin Mkapa did his best to reconcile the Tanzania Indian Ocean political rivals, but only made a little dent if ever his efforts had any results at all, in the fight.

Mkapa's predecessor Ali Hassan Mwinyi, successor of Tanzania's founding president Mwalimu Julius Nyerere also had, so to speak, some brush with the acrimonious political situation as well. He merely slid down like one striving to climb a slippery hill.

Notably, both Mwinyi and Mkapa scored no remarkable effects on the matter. Kikwete's assumption of power made no indication for a solution to the dispute.

That, however, does not mean all hope had been lost since with the coming of a new leader, new hope and the people's expectations also grow. President Kikwete's youth may have been one element that generated hope for a solution to the Zanzibar's political impasse. His charisma too may have shone some light into the political future of the nation.

Yet to some other political players of the day the president must have appeared too young to bring a relief in the fight and if they gave him any chance to try, it was very little and they did it with much impatience.

Soon Doubting Thomases began hurling political stones at him as a failure because, given what they must have set as the deadline for a solution, peace between the two wrangling parties was long over due.

The isles political reconciliation has been to most political observers on the island, belated. So belated it has been that the country's chief opposition party CUF blamed the lack of reconciliation on the president, writing it off as a weakness signature of the presidency.

The CUF National Chairman Prof Ibrahim Lipumba could not hide his feelings for how Kikwete was handling the matter and got it off his chest when on 28 September this year he said: "President Kikwete has neither the desire nor the ability to resolve Zanzibar's political impasse."
The professor spoke as a disappointed politician and dismissed the President's remark on the issue as misguided. What President Kikwete has said was that he had not failed to resolve the Zanzibar's political quarrel. It had to be approached with keen diplomacy.

However, keen political observers will remember that with hardly a year in office the president said the government was working around the clock underground to resolve the Zanzibar's political deadlock and bring about peace to the islanders.

Given comments like those of Prof. Lipumba and others, only a few people must have believed that the government was working hard to resolve Zanzibar's political crisis. But now, and in retrospect specifically, what President Kikwete told the UN Secretary General Mr Ban Ki-moon at the UN Chief's office in New York recently that an amiable solution to the Zanzibar crisis was within the two parties power, can only be underscored by Mr Hamad and President Karume's meet and the resultant hearty handshake.

The inimical political state between CUF and CCM no doubt polarized the insular Tanzania and there can be no gainsaying that acrimony, which gained a global stature has done much harm to the Zanzibar government, particularly hurting the twin island of Pemba, CUF's stronghold.

Think of the EPA scandal. He has applied the rule of law. Talk of Richmond. The rule of law was left to govern. Now talk of the Zanzibar political impasse that left his predecessors gasping. He applied diplomacy even as he remained so much in the background.

Signing a tangible agreement of sorts is therefore neither here nor there as of now. Most material is that the ground for further peaceful negotiation has been prepared and the spirit that pulled the antagonistic parties of Hamad and Karume together appears to be growing stronger for not only more warm handshakes but likewise for a communal better tomorrow.

When Kikwete begins the race for a second term he can move around the country with his chest forward, his head held high in the pride of ability to bring peace. Peace is conducive for prosperity.