Siasa za Bongo, yale yalee ya Mtakuja! Vikibuma, we rudi CCM

Nenda uendako, kurudi utarudi kijijini Mtakuja! Unabisha?


Part of news  from AllAfrica.com

The first woman to run for president in Tanzania, Dr Ana Senkoro has defected to the ruling Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM). CCM's secretary general, Yusufu Makamba, introduced her as a new member of the party at a press conference at the party's sub head office in Dar es Salaam yesterday, saying her crossing over has boosted the party. Mr Makamba was accompanied by national executive committee (NEC) member and agriculture minister, Steven Wassira ( a veteran politician). He said Dr Senkoro was a person of exceptional resolve and like all women, was always for orderly conduct of doing things, including politics. CCM was really where she belonged, he added. Dr Senkoro emerged eighth among ten presidential candidates in 2005, with 0.17 percent of the vote, an icebreaking step forward for the post's first female candidate.

She ditched her former Progressive Party of Tanzania-Maendeleo (PPT-Maendeleo), with a train of supporters, including her driver, Edgar Simtore, Ms Perpetua Simon and Mr Charles Chirwa. Towards the end of campaigns in 2005, Dr Senkoro suffered a debilitating stroke and revisited that experience yesterday as being partly the reason she has joined CCM. Her former party, she said, neglected her and it was rival candidate, President Jakaya Kikwete, who footed her medical bill.

Former civil servant, Peter Mziray, a youthful Russian trained agro-economist, is the leader of the socialist leaning PPT-Maendeleo. It was not immediately certain what role Dr Senkoro would play in her new party although she made it clear that she had no plans to contest the Same East parliamentary seat where she hails from.

Firebrand legislator, Anne Kilango Malecela, wife of CCM stalwart, John Malecela, is the incumbent MP for the constituency. Mr Malecela is also MP for Mvumi, Dodoma.