The year will be dominated by President John Pombe Magufuli's efforts to reshape Tanzania after ten years of President Jakaya Kikwete's directionless rule...
Those officials were all presidential appointees and so the public and media widely infer that they were complicit in tax evasion which was rampant during the government of Magufuli's predecessor Jakaya Kikwete...
This marks a change from the practice under former President Jakaya Kikwete where petroleum matters were held tightly by the Ministry of Energy and Minerals...
The politico-business networks that have shaped Tanzania for the past 20 years reached their zenith under his predecessor President Jakaya Kikwete...
In 2013 Jakaya Kikwete sent thousands of Rwandan 'refugees' home after he and President Paul Kagame had fallen out publicly even though many had been settled in Tanzania for decades and were completely without resources in Rwanda itself...
Some see him as a compromise candidate who is dependent on and subservient to his party Chairman and presidential predecessor Jakaya Mrisho Kikwete...
The leader of the islands' opposition Civic United Front Seif Shariff Hamad who claimed victory after parallel tabulation at polling stations gave him the lead made sure to meet outgoing President Jakaya Kikwete on his last day in office...
If that persists President Magufuli's top agenda items will look much like those of his predecessor Jakaya Kikwete...
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In August he signed a trade deal with Uganda and early this month he hosted Tanzania's soon-to-retire President Jakaya Mrisho Kikwete for a state farewell when the pair opened a new road linking their countries at Taveta 250 kilometres south-east of Nairobi...
This has been fuelled mainly by the presidential candidacy of Edward Ngoyai Lowassa a long-time CCM stalwart who quarrelled with the outgoing President Jakaya Kikwete and defected to the opposition Chama cha Maendeleo na Demokrasia (Chadema) three months ago (AC Vol 56 No 15 CCM springs surprise & Vol 56 No 17 'Lowassa fever' catching)...