The Salma Kikwete story

Dar es Salaam. A brief dispatch from the State House on Wednesday night announced the nomination of former First Lady Salma Kikwete as an MP, stirring a huge public debate on the unprecedented move by President John Magufuli.

Mama Salma, as she is popularly referred to, would make history as Tanzania’s first former first lady to become Member of Parliament. Her husband, Mr Jakaya Kikwete, stepped down as Head of State in 2015 after serving a constitutional limit of 10 years.

Yesterday, President Magufuli embarked on his maiden tour of Lindi Region which is Mama Salma’s birth place and political base. The visit, it would appear, was a cleverly choreographed move which intensified the attention on Dr Magufuli’s arguably significant political move ahead of the ruling party’s intra-party elections a couple of weeks away.

On the surface, opinion is divided on what the appointment of the former first lady means to the nation, or what exactly it portends to CCM and President Magufuli as its chairman. Debate on social media was centered on support or disapproval depending on what side of the political divide one stood.

However, behind the scenes, Ms Kikwete’s nomination is being described as a major step by the administration to reach out to a group of politicians with a huge influence within CCM, and who were seen as drifting away from the President.

President Magufuli, despite his elevation to the party’s top position, is not sitting pretty, quite yet, according to party insiders, who claim the CCM chairman was still without the staunch backing of some of the ruling party’s power brokers, especially in the grassroots, who view their new leader as more of a boardroom executive.

Ms Kikwete is placed in the group that has not warmed up well to President Magufuli, considering that she was seen and vigorously campaigned in support of the candidacy of Mr Bernard Membe to clinch the CCM ticket to succeed her husband. Mr Membe, a close friend of the former first family for many years was Kikwete’s foreign affairs minister for eight years, also hails from Lindi and has taken a low profile since his defeat in the CCM nominations in which Dr Magufuli overcame odds to triumph.

President Magufuli’s crackdown on tax evasion at the Dar es Salaam Port soon after he came to power would be another friction point that drove a wedge between the former first family and the new administration, with the names of Ms Salma and her stepson, Ridhiwani Kikwete, constantly being linked to alleged tax scandals, albeit unofficially.

At one point, when the roumours of alleged business dealings between the former first family and businesses that were under scrutiny from the government peaked, Mr Kikwete was forced to come out to defend his family from any wrongdoing.

The former President asked people to leave her family alone, stating that those peddling that line of thought were out to spoil his reputation and paint his family as being anti-government. President Magufuli is also on record clarifying that the government was at peace with the former first family.

Furthermore Ridhwani, now an MP in his father’s former constituency of Chalinze, has also spoken publicly of his innocence in the alleged scandals. He was among those who took to social media to hail the nomination of Ms Kikwete whom he described as a champion for women rights in the country.

The surprise nomination and the subsequent Lindi tour was thus being seen as an attempt by the President to pacify the group coalescing around the former first family and reach out to their support and network among CC