ANDREW EKEJIUBA
Tanzania’s Mainland Premier League champions, Simba SC, is leading a host of clubs in the top-flight to mourn the sudden demise of former Tanzania President, Benjamin Mkapa.
Simba, who were crowned the league champions for the third season in a row, are among the club’s to have joined Tanzanians to pay their last respect to the ex-President, who is known for leading a number of peace mediation efforts in the region, including taking part in Kenya’s post-election conciliation exercise in 2008.
1stnewsonline.com gathered that the former president died in the early hours of Friday.
While relaying the news on Tanzania Broadcasting Corporation on July 24, current President, John Pombe Magufuli, said Mkapa died at Dar es Salaam Hospital, where he was admitted.
“I call on all Tanzanians to receive the news of his death and to pray for Mzee Mkapa. More information will be released but Mzee Mkapa is no more,” he said with a tinge of regret in a brief television statement.
He also declared a seven-day mourning period. During this time, all flags in the country will be flown at half-mast.
Born on November 12, 1938, Mkapa led Tanzania from 1995 to 2005 and was succeeded by Jakaya Mrisho Kikwete.
In Kenya, President Uhuru Kenyatta and his Deputy William Ruto, led the country in condoling with Tanzania for losing a statesman.
“In Kenya we retain fond memories of his mediation efforts,” said former Kenya’s Prime Minister, Raila Odinga.
“(He) helped the country return to peace after the 2007-2008 election violence,” Odinga said, referring to a period in Kenya when 1,200 people were killed in ethnic clashes resulting from a presidential vote whose outcome Odinga disputed.
“A statesman particularly remembered as an indefatigable peacemaker in the East African region,” said the African Union Commission Chair, Moussa Faki Mahamat.
Mkapa, 81, a former journalist, also served as an ambassador, foreign minister and leading official of the ruling CCM party.
He was first elected president in 1995 in Tanzania’s first multi-party elections and oversaw macroeconomic reforms that helped stabilise a struggling economy and secured debt relief from foreign donors.
Born in southern Tanzania, Mkapa was an English graduate of the University of Makerere in Uganda and studied International Affairs at Columbia University in New York. “His efforts launched two decades of steady economic growth, fiscal credibility and falling inflation,” said Aidan Eyakuze, Executive Director of civil-society body, Twaweza East Africa.