Africans must be reminded of the breach of and an abuse Tanzania recently did to its nationals of Rwandese origin. Tanzania expelled the Tutsi ethnic nationals to Uganda and Rwanda in protests of Rwanda president Paul Kagame’s reported refusal to talk to Hutu ‘killers’ who fled to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and who have remained a threat to the Tutsi minorities currently ruling in
Rwanda.

The Tutsi ethnicities in Tanzania were made to leave without compensation and they lost their properties and lives while in Tanzania. They were reportedly humiliated and many are now suffering in refugee camps in Uganda and Rwanda. Many of them were born in Tanzania and had no relatives in Rwanda or Uganda.

Our investigations also reveal that Kikwete’s wife commonly known in Tanzania as Maama Salma Kikwete is a cousin of former Rwanda president Juvenile Habyarimana. This in-law relationship between the Habyarimana family and
Tutsi ethinicity perhaps influenced president Kikwete to share an anguish of in-laws to the Tutsi community in Tanzania to an extent of expulsion.

Just recently, Presdent Kikwete and other leaders of the EAC convened in Kampala on the issue of the Eastern Congo conflict with M23 rebels. News from the corridors of power indicated that Kikwete threatened Kagame with the expulsion of his kinsmen if he continued to hunt his in-laws in Congo. Kagame didn’t back down. With the working and Boarderless East Africa, Tanzanians can easily work in any country in the region but not other members of the region in Tanzania. Tanzania is a vast nation but with a poor economy.

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