MJEMA ANALYSIS: If We Let People Break the Constitution in the Name of ‘Good Intentions,’ We Are Finished

Allowing people to break Tanzania’s Constitution in the name of “good intentions” would put the country’s security at serious risk, columnist Daniel Mjema writes. He directs that warning at Interior Minister Patrobas Katambi after the minister discussed Sheikh Idd Mwaipopo’s creation of groups outside the constitutional framework.

Mjema says the Constitution is Tanzania’s supreme law and urges Katambi to focus on what he calls the more serious problems troubling the country. These include abductions, killings and people being reported missing, issues he says are generating anger toward the police. “For now, he should deal with the gangs that abduct and make people disappear,” Mjema writes.

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For now, he should deal with the gangs that abduct and make people disappear.

He points to Ghana as an example of a country where violating any constitutional article is treated as a high crime. Under the provision he cites, a convicted person receives a 10-year prison sentence without a fine or pardon and cannot be elected, appointed or hold public office for 10 years after completing the sentence. Tanzania’s Constitution does not contain a specific provision like Ghana’s on constitutional supremacy, Mjema says, but he argues that breaking the country’s supreme law remains a serious offense.

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Our dogs

The column then turns to Article 147(1), which prohibits any individual, organization or group, except the Tanzanian government, from forming an army of any kind. Article 147(2) assigns the Union government responsibility for establishing forces needed to protect the country and its people. Mjema recalls that former Chief Justice George Masaju strongly condemned private groups forming forces and said only the government has authority to remove people from their homes.

Against that backdrop, Mjema describes statements attributed to Sheikh Mwaipopo ahead of the so-called 7/7 demonstrations. The demonstrations did not have police approval, and Mwaipopo allegedly claimed responsibility for confronting young people who took part. He referred to groups called “our dogs” and “black leopards,” saying they would arrest and attack protesters. He also said the groups would use greater force than the government, deploy informers in Dar es Salaam, and hide in trees, rooftops and dirty drainage channels. Mjema presents those claims as precisely the kind of private security activity the Constitution forbids.

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Black leopards