Serengeti Receives Few Local Tourists

THE number of Tanzanians visiting the world famous Serengeti National Park (SENAPA) for tourism purpose is less than 10 per cent, according to Park's Tourism Department.

People seem to have failed to utilise the advantage of low fees charged by the Tanzania National Parks (TANAPA) for the locals visiting the park, blessed with a variety of beautiful fauna and flora.

"Entry fees for any Tanzanian visiting SENAPA is 1,500/-(about one dollar), but still the number of locals visiting the park stands at seven per cent," said Mr Godson Kimaro, in charge of the Park's Tourism Department.

Among other attractions, SENAPA is also the home land of 1.5 million wildebeests and hundreds of zebras that forms the great Serengeti migration, a big attraction to thousands of tourists from overseas. SENAPA is rated as one of the Tanzanian major tourist destinations and the world's top amazing park.

The park receives an average of 350,000 tourists every year with majority of them coming from the United States of America, Europe, Russia and Asian countries such as Korea, Singapore, China and India. "It seems that Tanzanians think that it is expensive to visit SENAPA, but it costs a mere 1,500/- as entry fees and the fee for a vehicle is 10,000/- only," Mr Kimaro clarified .

Arusha Region is leading with the number of local tourists visiting the SENAPA followed by Mwanza Region, according to him. "Majority of Tanzanian tourists came from Arusha and Mwanza followed by other regions such as Mara and Shinyanga," he said.

Mr Paschal Shelutete, the TANAPA Public Relations Manager, says there still is a misconception in the minds of Tanzanians that tourism is only for foreigners. "As you can see, the rates for the locals to visit the park is very low.

And we believe majority of Tanzanians can afford the rates but it seems they have a notion that tourism is only for foreigner," Mr Shelutete said, adding that TANAPA will continue putting in place effective strategies that will enable more locals to visit the country's national park.

According to Mr Kimaro, SENAPA is figuring out the possibility of involving serious local companies to start organising trips for locals interested to visit one of the world's top amazing park. "We want to partner with interested business enterprises starting with Mwanza and Mara regions," observed without elaborating.

Mr John Ng'oina, a popular politician in Serengeti District, cited low income as the major impediment hampering the development of domestic tourism in the country. He concurred with SENAPA that it was high time they put in place an effective strategy that will encourage many locals to visit the park.

"For example, there should be standby vehicles to take locals to the park at affordable fees," Mr Ng'oina, who is also the Serengeti District Council Chairman said. Officials estimate that over 90 per cent of Serengeti District area is made up of wild protected areas including world famous park.

"Many people in Serengeti have seen wild animals including wildebeests because they have been living with the animals for years, but poor income is the major reason they don't visit the park for tourism purpose," said Mr Ng'oiana.

In 2006 SENAPA was declared one of the seventh wonders of the world and further declared a top seventh best Africa's natural wonders in Arusha a few months ago. Serengeti is the country's second largest national park covering 14,763 square kilometres and was the first park to be created in the country in 1951  .     Source allAfrica

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Tanzania Strikes Another Offshore Gas Field

BG Tanzania announced that it had completed another successful drill stem test in offshore Tanzania about 45-kms from Mtwara, with tests on the Mzia-2 well flowing at a maximum rate of 57 million standard cubic feet (mscf) of natural gas per day.

"This is more gas than was expected to flow from this well and therefore a positive development. A drill stem test is a standard procedure within gas exploration activities and helps to determine the properties of the gas reservoir," BG Group Chief Executive Chris Finlayson, said in a statement.

He added: "The successful Mzia-2 drill stem test follows completion of a multi-well appraisal programme earlier this year on the nearby Jodari field." The CEO said while the company continues exploration and appraisal offshore, BG Group and its partners are also jointly studying suitable sites for a potential onshore Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) terminal and anticipate providing proposed locations to the government in the next few months.

An LNG plant is required to commercialise the gas finds, so Tanzania can fully benefit from its natural gas wealth. The BG Group President and Asset General Manager for East Africa, Derek Hudson, said the successful drill stem test on Mzia-2 is another important milestone in developing Tanzania's natural gas resources, coming less than 12 months after the original Mzia discovery.

"This swift progress reflects the commitment of all stakeholders, particularly the government and the communities in which we operate, to ensuring the full benefits of the country's natural gas resources are realised," he said. Mzia-2 is four kilometres from the Mzia-1 discovery, in around 1,620 metres of water and approximately 45 kilometres off the coast of southern Tanzania.

It is approximately 22 kilometres to the north of the Jodari-1 discovery well also in Block 1, where a successful drill stem test was completed in March. The drillship Deepsea Metro-1 has now relocated to Block 4 to drill an exploration well, Ngisi-1, adjacent to the existing Pweza and Chewa discoveries.

BG Group will use data from the current exploration and appraisal campaign and a recently completed 3-D seismic survey to help identify new offshore targets for a third exploration programme beginning in late 2013. Prior to Mzia-2, BG Tanzania has had seven consecutive natural gas discoveries, two successful appraisal wells and a successful test on the Jodari field. source Allafrica .com

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Tanzania will not back down from DRC intervention

Dar es Salaam will not back down from sending troops to the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) as part of a United Nations intervention brigade, despite two written warnings from the March 23rd Movement (M23) rebel group, Tanzanian officials say.

M23 rebels withdraw through hills on November 30, 2012, after leaving the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo village of Karuba.


Salva Rweyemamu, director of communication for the Tanzanian president, told Sabahi the government received two letters from M23, which is fighting to overthrow the Congolese government.

The first letter was directed to the Chairman of the International Great Lakes Conference, Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni, and copied to all heads of state in the region, including Tanzania's President Jakaya Kikwete.

A second letter addressed to National Assembly Speaker Anne Makinda and signed by Bertrand Bisimwa, the new head of M23's political wing, reached the Tanzanian parliament on Saturday (April 20th), sources told Sabahi.

In the letter, M23 urged lawmakers in Dar es Salaam to advise the government against deploying troops to the DRC, and even threatened a "massacre" of Tanzanian troops by M23 fighters if Tanzania went ahead with the deployment.
Restoring peace

"The intention of Tanzanian troops is not to kill Congolese but to restore peace," Deputy Speaker of the National Assembly Job Ndugai told Sabahi. "M23 will find this to be a problem if they are not for peace. We are not sending our soldiers to kill people or to be killed by M23."

On March 28th, the UN Security Council unanimously adopted Resolution 2098, which cleared the way for the international body's first-ever "offensive" combat force. The mandate of this intervention brigade, comprised of infantry battalions from Tanzania, South Africa, Mozambique and Malawi, is to "neutralise and disarm" M23, Congolese rebels and foreign-armed groups in eastern DRC, according to a news release from the United Nations.

In the letter dated April 11th, Bisimwa warned that M23 would defeat the UN brigade headed by a Tanzanian general.

On April 7th, Bisimwa issued similar threats to South African troops via his Twitter account, but South Africa said it would go ahead with plans to join the UN intervention brigade in DRC.

According to Bisimwa's letter addressed to Speaker Makinda, Resolution 2098 "transforms [the] UN Peacekeeping Mission to DRC into a belligerent force with the mandate to carry out offensive operations against Congolese citizens".

Bisimwa, who accused the United Nations of intervening in the DRC to rescue the government in power, vowed that M23 forces would defeat the interventionist brigade.

He said he highly respects the first president of Tanzania, the late Julius Nyerere, yet M23 would have no option but to "massacre the brotherly troops from Tanzania".

Colonel Kapambala Mgawe, spokesperson for the Tanzania People's Defence Force, reiterated Tanzanian troops are going into eastern DRC to keep the peace in the region.

"Where DRC citizens' lives or peacekeepers' lives will be in danger, our troops will rescue lives and disarm those who are causing that danger," he told Sabahi. "This is a stance and directive from the UN."
Previous threats

Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Co-operation Bernard Membe told Sabahi that Tanzania is used to receiving such unfounded threats from rebel groups whenever its forces intervene to save innocent people.

As an example, he cited the 2008 African Union military intervention in Anjuan, Comoros, that ousted former president Colonel Mohamed Bacar. Despite similar threats warning against Dar es Salaam's troop contribution, Tanzanian forces did not back down, Membe said.

"I think they [M23] would have honoured Mwalimu Nyerere by calling off the civil war that causes rampant rape, death for children and women, and displaces people," he said.

Membe said M23 should end its rebellion and stop killing innocent people, thereby giving Tanzania no reason to send a battalion to DRC.  SOURCE SABONLINE

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EAC leaders want monetary union talks speeded up

 President Jakaya Kikwete confers with Kenya’s President Uhuru Kenyatta during yesterday’s East African Community Heads of State Summit in Arusha. Mr Kenyatta, who was elected last month, was attending the Summit for the first time

Negotiations on the proposed East African Monetary Union (EAMU) should be concluded in August for signing in November this year, the regional leaders’ summit directed yesterday.

However, experts say several issues need to be addressed to pave the way for  an effective monetary union.
 The 11th extra-ordinary summit of the East African Community (EAC) heads of state held at Ngurdoto Mountain Lodge in Arusha urged the partner states to ensure negotiations were completed according to the schedule so that the long-awaited protocol could be signed during the next summit.


The Arusha Summit was attended by presidents Jakaya Kikwete, Uhuru Kenyatta of Kenya, Pierre Nkurunziza (Burundi) and Yoweri Museveni (Uganda) and Rwandan Prime Minister Pierre Habumuremyi and Zanzibar Second Vice President Seif Ali Idd.

Reading the joint communiqué at the end of the meeting, EAC Secretary-General Richard Sezibera said the Sectoral Council on Monetary Union would meet on Saturday to consider and give guidance to the draft protocol.

This will be followed by two ministerial meetings in July, one of which will give a legal input for the protocol in readiness for consideration and signing by the heads of state during their ordinary summit in November.

Negotiations for the protocol started in January 2011 and were among the key agendas of yesterday’s summit. 
Tentatively, the protocol could be signed in November, but experts have observed that this would also depend on how the partner states resolved a range of issues to pave the way for the pact.
 Despite EAC leaders’ desire to see the monetary union up and running, experts have pointed out several technicalities that are likely to further delay the conclusion of the process.

Key among the technicalities that have to be ironed out are the scope of EAMU, institutions necessary for its proper functioning, the macroeconomic convergence criteria and management of foreign reserves.

Others are the funding mechanism, transitional arrangements covering temporary and permanent institutions to be established during the transitional stage and harmonisation and coordination of fiscal policies.

Separate fiscal policies for a country in a single monetary union have been blamed for some of the major economic difficulties facing the Eurozone, and the EAC could face similar problems if the issue is not handled well, experts say.
A report of last week’s ministerial meeting that preceded the summit said experts working on the monetary union had observed considerable challenges with harmonisation and coordination of taxation.

“Partner states are at different levels of economic development and, therefore, need to provide for a provision for partner sates not to engage in harmful tax competition”, said the report seen by The Citizen.

On the establishment of the EAC Economic Stabilisation Policy, the experts maintained the facility should be established but the modalities and mechanism for its operation be left to be handled through a bill.
Institutions proposed for establishment under EAMU include the East African Financial Services Authority, East African Surveillance and Enforcement Commission and the East African Statistics Bureau.

The High Level Task Force (HLTF) observed names of the institutions should not be spelt out in the EAMU protocol, but provisions establishing each of these institutions be maintained “as they are critical to support the EAC Central Bank”.
In another development, the summit yesterday did not also agree on the extension of the jurisdiction of the East African Court of Justice (EACJ) to include crimes against humanity.

Instead, the summit resolved that the five partners in the bloc – Tanzania, Uganda, Kenya, Burundi and Rwanda – should consult further on the matter.

The previous summit had directed the Arusha-based secretariat to prepare a technical paper on how the powers of the Court can be extended to cover human crimes.
 The court, which is a judicial arm of EAC was launched in November 2001, is mandated to determine or arbitrate disputes arising out of cooperation among the member countries to the community.

That is despite Article 27 of the EAC Treaty providing the possibility for extension of its jurisdiction at a suitable subsequent date to include “such other original, appellate, human rights and other jurisdictions as determined by the EAC Council of Ministers”

The summit appointed former director general of the Communication Council of Kenya (CCK) Charles Jackson Njoroge as the new EAC deputy secretary general to replace another Kenyan national, Dr Julius Rotich, whose three-year tenure ends in June.

Mr Njoroge was sworn in along two new EACJ judges Faustine Ntezilyayo from Rwanda and Liboine Nkurunzinza from Burundi. Justice John Bosco Butasi was appointed the principal judge of the Court to replace Johnstone Busingye whose tenure is coming to an end.
Yesterday, the East African leaders sent a strong signal that the region would not tolerate any insecurity or destabilisation that would scare off investors or undermine its development efforts.

They said with major oil and gas discoveries made, the region must get rid of any threats posed to derail its quest to settle down and tap the vast natural resources for development. SOURCE THE CITIZEN

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NEC plans biometric system ahead of 2015

   

The NEC chairman, retired Judge Damian Lubuva, told a delegation from the Zimbabwe Electorial Commission (ZEC) that a decision had been made to put the system in place before the elections.“Yes we intend to introduce the biometric electoral system,” he said.Kenya’s Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) introduced the system ahead of the March 4 elections, but it was replete with technical glitches.

Biometric technology can be used to store unique physical characteristics including fingerprints and facial scans of voters in a database for identification.Mr Justice Lubuva said NEC was planning to float tenders for the acquisition of biometric electoral system, adding that its value was yet to be established.

He said NEC also planned to invite donors to fund the procurement and installation of the system.
The NEC chairman refuted claims that the commission was not transparent in the process of acquiring the system. “The whole decision was made by the government, which is our main stakeholder. There is no need of hiding the process from the public. Everything will be known after we complete the whole tendering procedure.”

Mr Justice Lubuva said the system should be in place before the 2015 elections if everything goes according to plan.
Utilising advanced biometric technology would lend accountability and transparency to the electoral system, he added.

“Adapting a cost effective and simple technology is a good way of solving the many election-related problems plaguing many African countries,” Mr Justice Lubuva said.

ZEC deputy chairperson Joyce Kazembe commended NEC for overseeing peaceful elections in Tanzania.
She added that Zimbabwe was optimistic that Tanzania would succeed in its endeavour to ensure electoral efficiency by introducing a biometric system.

Ms Kazembe said Zimbabwe was planning to acquire a similar system ahead of this year’s general election.
Mr Justice Lubuva said NEC was independent, and was not being directed or influenced by anybody.
“We are working professionally, contrary to what some of our detractors are claiming. We are here to serve Tanzanians, and not any individual or specific group,” he said.

Biometric technology is said to be one of the most reliable and secure methods that can be used in an election, it is the study of unique human features, which are then used to verify identity.

Usually, these unique features being used are the fingerprints, iris scans, facial features, voice recognition and even behavioural biometrics such as gait, posture and signature.
Biometrics technology, on the other hand, is the conversation of those unique human characteristics into computerized automatic identification of people.

 Retired Judge Damian Lubuva

Plans are afoot to introduce biometric voter registration ahead of the 2015 General Election, the National Electoral Commission (NEC) said yesterday.

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