A minister is accused of rape of a fifteen years old Secondary school student in Dodoma. The accusation is made after the minister is caught ready handed by his wife in one of the hotels the designate capital. The RPC calls the Prime Minister and tells him of the situation and that the evidence is overwhelming for the minister had left his DNA on the girl and the girl has left marks on the face of the alleged rapist. The Prime Minister calls the President to tell him about the incident. The president asks for the name of the accused minister. When he hears the name the president is torn between his longtime friendship with the accused and his duty to protect and defend the constitution and the laws emanating from it. He doesn't know what to do for the accused is like a family to him and his sons! What will the president do? Taking from a real incident the president would make some calls to some influential people in the country and all of them advice him to have the accused render his resignation immediately (which president would accept with sympathy to the accused!) while some arrangements are made to see how they can help him even if he's found guilty. This the president does, the media is happy and everybody is happy and no one notice what really has just happened!

    The failure of President Kikwete to act promptly and decisively as soon as the
allegations were made against former Taboras RC Mr. Ditopile Mzuzuri have left me
and possibly many more people with a number of questions which when answered they
signal an unpleasant state of leadership in Tanzania and indeed the implications of those
answers worries me. The time it took for the State House to let the public know that Mr.
Ditopile had submitted his resignation letter and that the president had indeed accepted is
unreasonable and shrouded in mystery.

    Among these questions that have formed in my mind are: When and from whom did
the President found out that Mr. Mzuzuri had allegedly shot a commuter bus driver? Did
the President speak to Mr. Mzuzuri himself before Police Chief Tibaigana spoke to the
public? Is there any good reason why this case was handled by the Commissioner of Police instead of the local police authorities? Could it be due to the respect to the office of the accused? Is this a normal procedure that when a high ranking public official is
suspected or accused of committing a crime he/she should go to the Regional Police
Commander to surrender? Why the public has not been told about one of the most
important witness in this whole saga, the woman who reportedly was in the car with Mr.
Mzuzuri? Who is she and where is she right now? Where was this unnamed woman
dropped? Was it at the Police Chiefs house or somewhere between where the incident
took place and the Police Chiefs house? Before Mr. Mzuzuri showed up at Mr.
Tibaigana house, did he speak to any other political leader? These people should make
themselves available for questioning or should be subpoenaed when the time comes.

    However, that is not the main topic of what I would like to talk to you today. If we
find answers to those questions we will be able to understand even a little bit why the
government took all this time to inform the public about the resignation of Mr. Mzuzuri
from his post and its implication in the judicial process that is about to begin. Although to
some this may not big deal, but to some of us who champion the rule of law and the
separation of power the way Kikwetes administration handled this case if I may use one
word is alarming.

    What worries me most is not that the President took too long to act but the implication
of such a delay and the precedence it might set in the future. Im worried that
Presidential advisors are failing Kikwete and unknowingly setting him up for a bigger
screw up in the future. These advisors (most of whom are very political) may not tell the
president all the right information and hence the perceived indecisiveness of Mr. Kikwete
in the public eye. They didnt advice him well on the Darwins Nightmare movie
where he really came out uninformed, they didnt advice him on the RDC energy deal,
where he ended up making a cosmetic change of his cabinet, and they have not advised
him well on this Ditopile issue, leaving the public with more questions than answers.
Even the President's letter of his acceptance of Mr. Mzuzuri's resignation is
overwhelmingly sympathetic to the accused murderer than the murdered. In the interest
of justice, the letter was unquestionably prejudicial.

     However, Im not worried about the letter or its content. What really worries me most
is the collective attitude of some of our leaders as far as their treatment of other people is
concerned, especially when those other people are just junior public officials or mere
ordinary citizens. Recent events and previous experiences have led me to believe that
some of our leaders and some of the people related to these leaders are not only
intoxicated by the trappings of power, but they are also corrupted by its arrogance.
How can you explain a public official who is having an affair with his secretary or a
junior official where by such a relationship will cause an appearance of impropriety and
lead to a perception of a possible conflict? How many public officials (including some
very high ranking ministers) have fathered children all over the country with their
secretaries or subordinates and people have accepted that as normal. . This is the
arrogance of power!

    How can you explain a district commissioner who slaps somebody in the face and
humiliate him in public and that district commissioner is still in office and the person
who appointed him is still thinking the gravity of such an action and hasn't taken any
disciplinary steps? There was a regional police commander who decided to whip some
passengers in public for some odd reason and that person is still in the office!! Isnt this
the abuse of authority due to this arrogance of power?

    How can you explain my friends, lawyers and public officials who instead of
representing the interests of the government when negotiating contracts, they do a mediocre job that results into some of the worst contracts that the government has ever entered into. One would expect that those people would be taken to task but no, those people still have kept their jobs and their money!! If this is not arrogance of power, then what is it? How can you explain the Speaker of the Parliament who is upset that a member of the House has used the word Kutia and kukaza while the same speaker is silent when a minister says boldly that it is not the Parliament's business to question some articles of a questionable contract? How can Members of Parliament issue a resolution condemning a movie while at the same time the same people fall silent when the RDC saga continues!? My friends, only people who are arrogant do this!

    When someone asks why people would carry mob justice instead of taking a petty
thief to the police station the answer is simple. Taking someone like that to the police
station would involve bureaucratic maneuvers that would end up with the release of that
person. Deep in their hearts citizens know that their police force is full of corruption and some of its finest are not only corrupt but also full of this arrogance of power.

     How can a president receive news that one of his officials has allegedly killed
somebody and the president would sit and wait for his resignation while some of his
surrogates go to the public and trying to mislead the public that once a public official has
been indicted then he automatically is removed from office? How after receiving the letter of resignation the same president would sit on it for an extra day almost costing a
member of TPDF his life and property due to the public outrage? What kind of a crime
could compel the president to act swiftly and methodically to remove someone from the
office? If this is not arrogance that comes from power then what is it?

    My argument is very simple, unless these people are checked, unless there is a clear system of checking the powers of these people we will continue to witness this abuse of authority and misuse of public offices. This arrogance of power needs to be defeated in order to restore public trust in their government and its institutions. My friends, the case of Ditopile would be the first sign whether our country is finally ready to be a country of
law and order where every one has the right to a fair trial, is equal before the law, and
regardless of his name or his social status he would be presumed innocent until proven
guilty and once proven guilty he would face the same punishment that anybody else
would. This arrogance needs to be defeated before it keeps emerging its ugly face on and off and keep corrupting our public officials with the power that corrupts absolutely!!