Of President John Magufuli's no-show

NAIROBI: At the just concluded Tokyo International Conference on African Development, the absence of Tanzanian President John Pombe Magufuli was jarring. Yet this is not the first time the Tanzanian leader has failed to turn up in Nairobi to attend an international meeting in his one year in office.

Mr Magufuli, who has distinguished himself locally as a leader in a hurry to fix things, has skipped at least five international meetings including the World Trade Organisation conference in Nairobi and the Africa Union Summit in Addis Ababa. Though Kenya downplayed his absence at the August 27-28 meeting that saw more than 35 heads of state and Prime Ministers converge in Nairobi, it is not easy to answer the ‘why’ of it. Mr Magufuli’s no-shows naturally, does not bode well for regional integration and co-operation.