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New Cabinet ’not yet ready’
2006-01-03 08:40:40
By Guardian Reporter and Agencies
A State House statement said President Jakaya Kikwete was expected to finalise the formation of his Cabinet on Friday, dashing hopes that the new lineup was to be unveiled either yesterday or today.
The statement, signed by Assistant State House Press Secretary Maura Mwingira, urged Tanzanians to be patient as the president picked his new team and cautioned them against engaging in’wild speculation’ ahead of the unveiling of the Cabinet.
President Kikwete is expected to name the Cabinet this week following his landslide election victory and subsequent inauguration last month.
The naming of the Cabinet is being eagerly awaited following the recent appointment of Edward Lowassa and Johnson Mwanyika as prime minister and attorney general, respectively. Lowassa’s nomination was approved by Parliament last week.
Whereas who exactly will be in the lineup is still a mystery, the new team is expected to have more than the four women ministers who were in the outgoing Cabinet. This is in line with President Kikwete’s promise of appointing more women to the Cabinet.
Speaking in an interview with the BBC shortly after he was sworn in on December 21, President Kikwete said:
’I have promised and I’m promising again that the number of women in the Cabinet will increase.
I’m not in a position to say how many of them will be in the Cabinet or whether the next prime minister will be a woman…what I can say is that I will keep my promise.’
The four women ministers in former President Benjamin Mkapa’s government were Anna Abdallah (Health), Asha-Rose Migiro (Community Development, Gender and Children), Mary Nagu (State, President’s Office, Public Service Management) and Zakia Meghji (Natural Resources and Tourism).
President Kikwete is expected to appoint many new faces to Cabinet, although the head of state put it mildly when he said in the BBC interview,’There will be some slight changes here and there with a view to enabling the ministries tackle effectively the problems we are facing.’
Analysts are watching with keen interest to seek whom the president will appoint to head the sensitive Defence, Finance, Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation and Home Affairs ministries.
Those who held the portfolios in the previous government were Prof Philemon Sarungi (Defence), Basil Mramba (Finance), Kikwete (Foreign Affairs) and Omar Ramadhan Mapuri (Home Affairs).
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