By Hellen Mataba
April 12, 1984, that is 26 years ago, was the darkest day for Tanzania and its people. It was the day that has remained indelibly engraved in the minds of Tanzanians.
It was the day that they lost their beloved leader—Prime Minister Edward Moringe Sokoine, who died in a dreadful road accident at the prime age of 56 years.
The towering Maasai from Monduli District in Arusha Region was killed in the ghastly mysterious accident at Wami-Dakawa, about 35 kilometres south of Morogoro town.
The workaholic Sokoine was killed as his motorcade was driving from the designated capital of Dodoma where he had adjourned Parliament session. A day before his tragic death he had promised his Monduli constituents who had visited him in Dodoma to meet them in two weeks’ time. But they never and they will never meet him again.
Attilio Tagalile, a seasoned journalist who covered the death of Sokoine when he was chief reporter for government-owned Daily News and Sunday News, recalls that he received a call from Acadoga Chiledi informing him of the death of Sokoine. Chiledi (deceased) was press secretary to Sokoine.
He says journalists rushed to State House in Dar es Salaam where they met outspoken Joseph Nyerere, the younger brother of founding President Mwalimu Julius Kambarage Nyerere, who could not mince his words saying:
“The president has no watertight security detail. How come his prime minister is killed in a road accident just like that?”
Tagalile says when the body of Sokoine was brought to State House’s main gate; Mwalimu Nyerere touched his forehead and burst into tears before he was whisked away by his bodyguards.
Announcing the tragic death of Sokoine to a shocked nation, the tearful Mwalimu Nyerere quipped: “My fellow countrymen, our leader, our young man, Prime Minister Edward Moringe Sokoine, has died.”
Tagalile who extensively covered Sokoine during his lifetime says that he was a prime minister of standards who did not take sides when problems arose.
The journalist recalls that Sokoine preferred to listen stories from both conflicting sides before drawing to conclusion, adding that the former prime minister followed up his directives to the letter.
Tagalile recalls one incident when Sokoine inspected a cemetery for Tanzania People’s Defence Forces (TPDF) soldiers who died during the war against Ugandan Idd Amin at Kaboya in Kagera Region.
“He (Sokoine) found the graves of the fallen heroes in a state of disrepair. When we returned at Bukoba State Lodge the Prime Minister was invited by the then Kagera Regional Commissioner Nsa Kaisi for dinner. It was around 4pm. He refused to have dinner and asked his lieutenants to connect him to Dar es Salaam,” recalls Tagalile.
In Dar es Salaam, he says, Sokoine spoke on telephone to the then Chief of Defence Forces General David Musuguri and the then Minister for Trade and Commerce, Mr Cleopa David Msuya, and ordered that enough cement should be ferried to Kagera the following day to renovate the graves.
“At about 2pm the following day an army plane arrived in Kagera from Dar es Salaam loaded with bags of cement. Briefly this shows how Sokoine was a man of standards and action,” says Tagalile.
“Also don’t forget that Sokoine was the brainchild of city commuter buses commonly known as daladala. And no wonder hundreds of thousands of Dar es Salaam residents were ferried on daladala free of charge when they went to pay their last respects to the body of Sokoine before he was flown to Monduli for burial,” he says.
But today, 26 years after his tragic death, majority of Tanzanian children aged below 26 years might not know who this man called Edward Moringe Sokoine was to Tanzania because all indications point to the fact that this country has forgotten Sokoine who was prime minister from February 13, 1977 to November 7, 1980, and again from February 24, 1983 to April 12, 1984.
And this is reflected in the way relevant authorities have abandoned the place where Sokoine was killed in that heartrending accident.
A recent spot-check by The Citizen found the place in pathetic conditions contrary to what Sokoine had stood for during his tenure of premiership of this country.
An unkempt monument in green, yellow, blue and black— colours of the national flag— is the only reminder that the place has something in connection with Sokoine. It doesn’t tell a visitor that it is the place where the former Prime Minister met his death.
The rectangular monument partly carries Sokoine’s undated biography showing that he had been Monduli District Executive Officer, Monduli MP, Chairperson of the Transport Licensing Authority, Deputy Minister for Communications, Transport and Labour, Minister of State in the Vice-President’s Office, Minister for Defence and Prime Minister.
The monument bearing a picture of the Uhuru Torch and a drawing of the portrait of Sokoine inscribed Edward Moringe Sokoine 1938-1984 carries a message saying: “He served the Almighty God by serving people. The people’s voice is the voice of God.”
Young Maasai girl pupils found at the monument said the only thing they knew about Sokoine was that he was a leader of the Maasai. Most of the residents in Wami-Dakawa area in Mvomero District, Morogoro Region, are Maasai pastoralists.
Siapeli Lalai, 8, and Layani Mifugo, 8, both Standard II pupils at nearby Luhindo Primary School admitted that apart from their knowledge that Sokoine was the leader of Maasai, they knew nothing else about the man.
Adalbert Rwechungura, a teacher at Luhindo Primary School, situated about 200 metres from the Sokoine monument, said the school has a total of 518 pupils with half of them Maasais.
“We don’t have any special lesson for our pupils about the place. Pupils only visit the place when there is an event such as a meeting,” says the mathematics and science teacher of seven years in the school.
Hamisi Saidi Mpandachalo, a 70-year-old man who volunteered to guard the place since 2003, says it is a shame to the nation to abandon such an important place to the history of Tanzania.
“To tell you the truth Tanzanians have totally forgotten their hero (Sokoine). I don’t know what wrong he did to them,” laments the old man, adding: “Several times visitors travelling on the Morogoro-Dodoma highway stop here to learn about this valiant leader.”
He adds: “It is a shame to the nation when the visitors find this place in such an appalling situation.”
Mpandachalo says the only personalities that pay homage to the place are the wife of the Father of the Nation, Mama Maria Nyerere, and the late Amina Chifupa, former outspoken MP on special seats. “They will usually stop here and pray before the Edward Moringe Sokoine monument,” he narrates.
Apart from these two personalities, Mpandachalo says he has never seen any other national leader paying homage to the place during his seven years of guarding the monument and a handful other structures in the area.
“The leaders should have been paying homage to this man who sacrificed his life for this country. The leaders know what Sokoine did to Tanzanians. But they treat him as a drunkard. If he did anything bad to the people of this country we must forgive him,” prays the old man.
He says Luhindo and Wami villagers met in 2003 under the chair of former Mvomero District Commissioner, Mr Samwel Kamote after structures at the place had been vandalized.
“Previously, the place was guarded by various people who stole corrugated iron sheets and other valuables,” says Mpandachalo, adding: “Mr Kamote used to visit me here and gave me some money and food.”
He adds that the district commissioner who was transferred in 2004 brought many visitors from Monduli district—his previous workstation, and Sokoine’s native land.
Mpandachalo says since Mr Kamote left the place about six years ago no other district or regional leader has visited the place that has now been converted into a youth camp for the ruling Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM).
He says the CCM youth gather at the place twice a year. The place has also a ground which is used for meetings and other businesses such the July 2010 CCM preferential polls.
He says a number of journalists from the local media have also visited the place and explained to them about the pathetic situation the Sokoine monument was facing but “I have never seen any action being taken by relevant authorities.”
“I feel ashamed when I get visitors. And I cannot prevent the visitors from stopping over this place because it is situated along the highway connecting Dar es Salaam’s major port with Uganda, Burundi, Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo,” explains the guard.
“What message do they send to their respective countries when they recall Sokoine’s excellent leadership and find this sorry state of his memorial monument?” queries Mpandachalo.
“The visitors ask me how many times the President (Jakaya Kikwete) has stopped here? I don’t mince my words by telling them point blank that I have never seen the President stopping here,” he says.
Dr Laison Mloge, a senior livestock officer for Wami-Luhindo area, says when he was transferred to the area from Mpanda district in Katavi region he could not believe his eyes when he found the place where Sokoine died in a shambles.
“I was shocked to find this place in such wretched situation. This is a memorial place for our fallen hero but nobody cares to make sure that the place is highly maintained,” says the livestock officer.
He says: “If God kept Sokoine alive to date Tanzania should have gone very far in terms of development because he was a no-nonsense hardworking leader.”
He suggests that there should have been a Sokoine Memorial Day in honour of the man of few words but many deeds who wanted to see things done and done now, not tomorrow.
He was the man who hated economic saboteurs and other criminals. And the economic saboteurs indeed feared him like death.
Namelo Sokoine, the fourth child of Sokoine, says the area at which his father died in an accident has been abandoned. “This is not the best way to treat a deceased leader who sacrificed his life to this nation,” she laments.
She says in 2009 she visited the place and found a CCM youth camp and she contributed some money to paint the monument.
“We, as a family, have tried to ask relevant authorities to allow us to maintain the place but we have been told that it (the place) is being manned by the CCM youth wing,” says Namelo.
She says the intention was to maintain the place under the Edward Moringe
Sokoine Trust Fund which was established in 2004.
Reports also indicate that former Minister for Defence and National Service, Prof Philemon Sarungi, had also requested authorities to allow the army to maintain the place in honour of Sokoine, who had also served as defence minister.
To put it in a nutshell, Edward Moringe Sokoine was the country’s Prime Minister who was loved by Tanzanians from all ranks, including founding President Nyerere.
He was a patriotic leader who loved his people from the bottom of his heart. He was an honest and hard working man who spent most of his time at work, criss-crossing the country to learn problems facing people.
Sokoine was the brainchild of Dar es Salaam city commuter buses popularly referred to as daladala. He allowed private minibuses which were operating illegally to operate lawfully.
The former Prime Minister is also remembered for the war he had declared against economic saboteurs which led to the prosecution of a good number of people, including wealthy businessmen, under the Economic Sabotage Act.
In 1938, Sokoine was born in Monduli, Tanzania. From 1948 to 1958, he had his primary and secondary education in the towns of Monduli and Umbwe in Kilimanjaro.
In 1961, he joined the Tanganyika African National Union (TANU), after he took studies in administration in the then Federal Republic of Germany (1962-1963).
When he returned from Germany, he became District Executive Officer of the Masai District, and then he was elected to the National Assembly for the Masai Constituency.
In 1967 he became Deputy Minister of Communication, Transportation and Labour. The next step in his career was the promotion to the Minister of State in 1970.
In 1972, he switched to the post of the Minister of Defence and National Service of Tanzania. In 1975, he was elected to the National Assembly again, this time for Monduli.
Two years later, he became member of the Central Committee of the ruling CCM. In the same year (1977) began his first term in office as Prime Minister of the United Republic of Tanzania. This term lasted till 1981.
After a year-long break, he became Prime Minister again in 1983. This time, he stayed just one year in office, before he died in an accident on April 12, 1984.
The Sokoine University of Agriculture (SUA) which began in 1964 as an agricultural college offering diploma in agriculture was named after him. It was elevated to a faculty of agriculture in 1969 under the University of Dar es Salaam.
