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Tamwa places opposition MPs on top
17 July 2010
The Citizen

Dar es Salaam: Even as the Opposition in Tanzania remain weak and fragmented, the performance of its elected Members in Parliament has won accolades. The Tanzania Media Women Association (Tamwa) executive director, Ms Ananilea Nkya, said despite being few in number compared to the ruling Chama Cha Mapinduzi lawmakers, opposition MPs have left a mark in the general performance of the 9th Parliament which is about to be dissolved.

She said the opposition MPs have endeared themselves to the wananchi because "they have been safeguarding public interests and not their parties."

"We have seen the good work done by the opposition lawmakers although they are few in number compared to those from the CCM. I especially commend Dr Willibrod Slaa, Zitto Kabwe, Halima Mdee and the leader of Opposition in the House Hamad Rashid Mohamed," she said.

She noted that in most cases whenever the Parliament had forced the government to doing what it was supposed into do, the source and inspiration had come from opposition MPs. "The opposition MPs have been the voice of the voiceless in the Parliament which is about to be dissolved. They represented well the country's majority poor. Although many issues which they pressed for haven't been fully addressed, their work has, however, left memorable impact on Tanzanians," she said.

Various researches have shown Chadema's Dr Slaa as the most active Member of Parliament, with Mr Kabwe and Hamad also being listed, as notable contributors during debates. This is according to a report on the performance in the National Assembly during the last four years conducted by Uwazi Twaweza. Entitled, "Do they work for us?" the report covers 17 formal Parliamentary sessions running from November 2005 to November 2009.

Dr Slaa, a former Catholic priest, who has taken the war on corruption to the government's doorsteps, was named the most prolific debater "with 268 interventions and a total of 139 basic and supplementary questions."

Other MPs in the Top 10 list are Ms Diana Chilolo (Nominated- CCM), Mr William Shelukindo (Bumbuli- CCM), Mr Zitto Kabwe (Chadema- Kigoma North), Mr Godfrey Zambi (Mbozi-CCM), Mr Juma Kilimbah (Iramba West-CCM), Ms Jenista Mhagama (Peramiho-CCM), and Ms Susan Lyimo (Chadema-Nominated). Three CCM lawmakers, six Cabinet ministers and an ex-officio MP, are
listed by the NGO as the least active in Parliament and reportedly accounted for not more than five scores in all the three measures used to judge MPs' performance.

Some did not make a single intervention. The poor show by most of Cabinet ministers and their deputies could be due to their being in the government, they can't make many interventions on the floor of the august House.

East Africa Cooperation minister Deodarus Kamala and his Education counterpart, Prof Jumanne Maghembe, top the list of the 10 most active ministers. However, Dr Kamala is ranked 163rd and Prof Maghembe, 167th on the overall list.



Keywords: parliament, oversight, Tanzania
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