Bashing Tanzania and lopsided British diplomacy

 By Juma Kwayera

 After many years of being touted as a shining example of political stability in Africa, Tanzania finds itself on the receiving end from development partners. Some donors now claim that gangsters run the country. Britain in particular wants a tougher stance on Dar es Salaam and senior government officials have taken turns to harangue President Jakaya Kikwete for allegedly being partial rogue government officials and businessmen.

One of the latest charades against Tanzania follows land ownership dispute between businessman Benjamin Mengi and a British couple, Mrs Sarah Hermitage and Stewart Middleton. The dispute of the land situated in Hai, Moshi, which has generated considerable interest in the British media and Parliament, with an MP, Mr Roger Gale, calling for suspension of aid to Tanzania for “harassing investors.”

Mr Gale in a presentation to Parliament in July said of Tanzania, “The country is, effectively, being run by gangsters. It's worth remembering that some of the donors...have, at least until very recently, held Tanzania up as a shining example of what can be achieved in Africa. Our...own Department for International Development has been at the forefront of such organisations...In fact DFID pioneered a dreadful policy called 'budget support' in Tanzania.”

The description has echoes of the kind arm-twisting and pressure international development partner led by the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the United States and the European Union piled on Kenya in the 1980s. Agreed, Tanzania has its shortcomings like any other African country, but the kind of negative publicity the foreign office and the media have embarked on calls into question the principle of fairness. More intriguingly were attempts by the British embassy’s attempt to dissuade local media from cover the controversy citing the reputation and credibility of the two investors would be jeopardy. 

When the dispute between the Middletons and the Benjamin Mengi over the ownership of Silverdale Farm became of matter of public interest and local media were having a fielding day reporting it, then British High Commission to Tanzania, Mr Andrew Pocock invited the latter’s brother, Mr Reginald Mengi, for consultations and possible arbitration. Among other things, according The Evening News of London, Reginald was to be mediator between disputants. What was not reported was Pocock’s pressure on the latter, a media owner to prevail on journalists not to publicise the matter. Reason, it was giving Britain bad publicity!

Western media often boast that they are the paragons of media independence and freedom of expression. Why then would a British envoy seek to shield its citizens from media coverage? Is fair to label this as outright bigotry?

As the controversy threatens to injure Tanzania’s international standing, a rather peculiar case was concluded in the England and Wales High Court (Queen's Bench Division) Decisions, in which Middleton and Hermitage were put on the defence over malicious character assassination. Again, The Evening News and other media that have been covering the saga were economical with information regarding libellous claims.

The merits or demerits of the case notwithstanding, allegations of spirited attempt by one time British High Commissioner in Tanzania to prevail on Tanzanian media tycoon not to report on the conduct of the two investors’ raises serious questions of integrity.

The media in Africa has always looked to the more tolerant governments in the West to shield them against repression. It is always assumed in the West there is relative freedom of expression and editorial independence. Media owners rarely interfere with editorial content or policies of their firms.

According to Hermitage, in late 2005, Reginald Mengi reported to the British government that he felt the Silverdale saga was damaging his business interests. He told Mr Pocock he was going to issue a statement on the case. She sought Pocock’s intervention by which the envoy demanded to know from Reginald Mengi why the latter’s newspapers and television stations reporting on the investors

According Gale, “Mengi lied. Three weeks later, IPP Media began a relentless campaign of defamation against the investors amounting to criminal libel under the penal code of Tanzania.”

In the Hansard of the British Parliament of  February  27, 2008, Meg Munn, the Parliamentary Under-Secretary in the, Foreign and Commonwealth Office, commenting on the saga, told the House how  British High Commission, particularly successive high commissioners, Pocock and current envoy, Philip Parham, have been actively engaged with the case.

“They have provided a lot of support to Mr Middleton and Ms Hermitage, and have intervened many times and lobbied the Tanzanian Government on the couple's behalf. That engagement has helped to bring the situation back from the brink on several occasions. British Ministers have also raised the case at the highest levels, most recently when Lord Malloch-Brown raised it with President Kikwete earlier this month during the African Union summit. As a result of those interventions, there are signs of potentially helpful movement from senior members of the Tanzanian government,” said Munn.