Tanzania new pipeline plan promises cheaper oil

From The East African - BUSINESS, Nairobi, KENYA

By Mike Mande

Landlocked East African Community member states are to benefit from a proposed oil pipeline to connect them to Tanzania if negotiations, now at an advanced stage, go through.

The $3.5 million project, which will see the construction of a refinery and a 1,500-kilometres pipeline from the Coast Region of Tanzania to Kigoma and Mwanza regions will be carried out by Noor Oil & Industrial Technologies (NOIT), a United States-based multinational oil firm.

Such a pipeline will give the region a steady, uninterrupted supply of refined products.

Union of Oil and Gas Producers of Russia president Dr Gennady Shmal told The EastAfrican that the project’s advantages are linked to the huge net proceeds from the storage and transport of petroleum products to Mwanza, Kigoma and neighbouring states.

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14 years after MV Bukoba accident: Questions are still unanswered as accidents persist

From The Guardian on Sunday, Dar es Salaam
By Nimi Mweta

Certain sections of the media engaged in spirited discussion focused on where the country stands as the horrendous MV Bukoba accident clocked 14 years.

One reason for the commemorative discussion was to review a book by a survivor of the accident, published a while back, with the late Prof. Haroub Othman writing the foreword to the book, and it was clear its themes are as relevant as they were at the time. It is a sorry tale of the reflex that guides public administration.

One theme that runs through the discussion, and in a way through the book also, though the author is careful not to start raising doubt about the integrity or probity of individuals handling the MV Bukoba steamer (as experts call it, not a ship).

It appears however that many questions would also need to be put across as to how narrow their judgment would have been at the time, and even up to the time of the accident. And worse, it seems that those same lessons that were never learnt at the time haven’t been learnt since those days.

When however one tries to look at the problem technically, that is to say the need to weed out the sources of corruption that lead to oversight in inspection or regulation, routine enforcement of standards or directives on seaworthiness, loading, etc a few problems crop up.

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Passengers from Tanzania robbed in bus

From Daily Nation, Nairobi, KENYA
By NATION Correspondent

Thirty-eight passengers travelling from Tanzania to Nairobi were on Wednesday robbed off their money and other valuables.

Gangsters posing as passengers attacked the bus from Mwanza near Nakuru Town.

Police said three smartly dressed men attacked the passengers at Mbaruku area, on the Nakuru-Nairobi highway in the early morning hours.

Area police boss Johnston Ipara said the gang had boarded the bus in Kericho Town.

At gun point
He said the gangsters ordered the driver at gunpoint to drive towards Soysambu ranch where they robbed the passengers off Sh186,000, some Sh1.3 million in Tanzania currency and 16 mobile phones.

Police officers on patrol swung into action and arrested one suspect near Shiner Boys School just a few kilometres from the scene of attack.

Some Sh51,000 was recovered from the suspect and a bus ticket indicating that the suspect had boarded it from Kericho.

Mwanza mayor in court

From The Citizen, Dar es Salaam
By Paulina David, Mwanza

The Mwanza City Mayor, Mr Leonard Bandiko Bihondo, 64, was arraigned at the Resident Magistrate Court along with three others charged with murder of the former CCM secretary for Isamilo ward in the city, Ms Bahati Stephano, 50.

Mr Bihondo and others namely Jumanne Oscar, 30, Batalzar Shushi, 43, and the city mayor’s campaign manager, Abdul Hausi, 45, appeared in court at around 2:30pm yesterday.

State Attorney, Mr Stephen Makwega, alleged before senior resident magistrate, Ms Eugenia Lujwahuka, that the city mayor and others had jointly killed the CCM secretary for the ward at around noon on Friday last week.

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Mwanza mayor linked to murder charges

From Daily News, Dar es Salaam
From DAILY NEWS Reporter in Mwanza

POLICE in Mwanza are holding the mayor of the city, Leonard Bihondo (64), in connection with recent killing of Isamilo Ward CCM Secretary, Bahati Stephano (50).

Mwanza Regional Police Commander Simon Sirro said the mayor was arrested on Wednesday at 4.00pm upon his arrival at Mwanza Airport from Dar es Salaam, where he was on official trip.

"We have arrested the Mayor who is in the list of people linked to the suspected murder of Bahati," Mr Sirro said, adding that police have already arrested three other suspects.

He named them as Jumanne Oscar (30), a resident of Kitangiri in Mwanza city who allegedly stabbed Bahati in the stomach using a knife.

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Mwanza petty traders clash with city militiamen

From The Citizen, Dar es Salaam
By Jane Kajoki in Mwanza

Police officers here yesterday were forced to use tear gas canisters to disperse irate small-scale traders, who were in a fierce battle against the Mwanza City askaris.

The small-scale traders, popularly known as machingas, hurled stones towards the askaris they accused of harassing them and abusing their (machingas’) rights in the city.

Various activities were almost paralysed at the city centre, as traders were forced to close their business and run for their lives.

The machingas continue hurling stones towards the city askaris regardless of the tear gas, complaining that the askaris were used to confiscating their commodities.

The askaris imposed exorbitant amount of money in fines whenever they attempted to clam back their commodities, they said.

Some of their commodities could not be recovered even after paying for fines amounting to Sh 50,000, which often surpassed the amount of their capital they used for investing in their petty trades.

With tears dropping down his cheecks, one of the petty traders, Mr Ibrahim Shomali, said: “Should the local authorities allocate special areas for us to conduct out trades, regular clashes with the law enforcers will be history.”

About 10 petty traders were arrested by the city askaris during the fracas.

Tanzania to expand oil infrastructure

From Pipelines International, Houston, Texas, United States

US-based firm Noor Oil & Industrial Technology (NOIT) has signed an implementation agreement with the Government of Tanzania to build an oil pipeline and refinery.

The pipeline will run from Dar es Salaam to Mwanza on Lake Victoria and Kigoma on Lake Tanganyika. Plans, design and feasibility studies are currently in progress.

NOIT is also in advanced negotiations to expand the pipeline into the neighbouring states of Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi, which would ensure a steady supply of petroleum products in the region. The refinery will process crude oil from the Middle East, and will have a capacity of 200,000 bbl/d, and may be expanded at a later date.

The entire project is estimated to cost $US3.5 billion, and the Tanzanian Government will have a 5 per cent stake in the pipeline and a 10 per cent stake in the refinery.

Masha’s promise on brutal killing

From The Citizen Daily, Dar es Salaam
By Frederick Katulanda, Mwanza

The government has said a thorough investigation would be conducted to establish the masterminds behind the murder of the Isamilo Ward CCM secretary, Mr Bahati Stephano.

The minister for Home Affairs and Public Safety, Mr Lawrence Masha told mourners that the untimely death of Mr Stephano would never be resulted from God’s wish.

Mr Stephano was stubbed to death by unidentified men at his office in Mwanza on Friday afternoon.

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GGM mourns its fallen workers

From The Citizen Daily, Dar es Salaam
By The Citizen Reporter, Geita

Geita Gold Mine (GGM) yesterday suspended its mining operations for two days to pave way for workers to mourn the death of their two colleagues, who died in an accident on Wednesday.

Cries of grief were heard all over Geita Township in Mwanza region yesterday when hundreds of residents gathered at the mine to bid farewell to the fallen workers.

Bodies of Honest Ngowi and Essau Mwakibuja, who died during the Wednesday night accident, were transported to Moshi Municipality and Mbeya City, respectively, for burial shortly after the township residents paid their last respects.

The GGM Human Resources manager, Philemon Tano, confirmed that operations at the mine were halted for two days to that effect.

“This is a huge loss to us in the management and to all workers in the mining department, who have been sent back home for two days to mourn their colleagues’ deaths,” Tano said.

The mine management was consulting experts abroad for a thorough and an in-depth investigation to be conducted on the first kind of accident to take place at the mine.

Tano beseeched all GGM workers to remain calm during the trying moment.

Modern oil refinery for Dar es Salaam

Frpm Daily News, Dar es Salaam
By AUSTIN BEYADI

A FOUR-nation consortium will soon start construction a state-of-the-art oil refinery in Dar es Salaam and an oil pipeline from the city to Mwanza and Kigoma. The project will be the largest single investment and the largest and most advanced oil refinery in Sub-Saharan Africa.

According to the President of Noor Oil and Industrial Technology Consortim (NOITC), Ms Minoo Davar, the consortium, involving Tanzanian, Russian, Qatar and German companies, has successfully acquired initial funding of six billion US dollars for the project.

She said that in the current economic environment acquiring a large project funding of approximately 6 billion US dollars "it is clearly a very significant challenge".

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Minister: corruption still a major concern’

From The Citizen Daily, Dar es Salaam
By Paulina David, Mwanza

Corruption is still a major public sector concern, the minister of state in the President’s Office (Public Service Management), Ms Hawa Ghasia, admitted here yesterday.

She said corruption in social service provision and abuse of office were still rampant among civil servants. She said this in a speech read on her behalf by the Mwanza regional commissioner, Mr Abbas Kandoro, during a meeting of administrative and human resource directors and managers.

They came from government ministries, regional secretariats and other institutions in Mwanza City.

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With no husband...five children to care for

From Daily News, Dar es Salaam

By IMAN MANI

It should not come as a surprise to hear that Manozia Eliagaba of Geita District in Mwanza Region finds life very hard.

The 35-year-old albino lady is a mother of five children with no husband to care for. She is one of three albino children out of 11 siblings. Her father had four wives and had left her mother to take care of them, while Manozia was at an early stage.

A similar situation exists for her, for she doesn’t know where any of her children’s fathers are. With visible embarrassment she tells ‘Daily News’, “Men tend to be interested in me until I get pregnant, when they leave.”

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WEF: Towards energy sufficiency

From The Citizen Daily, Dar es Salaam
By Ray Naluyaga

Tanzania is set to pump into the national grid an additional 900 MW of electricity during the next three years.

Based on short term projects lined up for execution by 2013, the minister for Energy and Minerals, Mr William Ngeleja, told this newspaper that the country will overcome the shortage of electricity caused by low generation capacities which have in recent years caused a recurrent power rationing.

The minister said power demand in the country have been increasing rapidly and apart from poor hydrology, the increase on power demand have reduced the safety margin reserves in generation capacity.

“This has resulted to unstable system leading to unreliable and poor supply of power,” said the minister.

Mr Ngeleja said the plan to procure an additional 100MW generator for Dar es Salaam and 60MW for Mwanza, is now in its final stages.

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Govt pledges revival of leather centre

From The Citizen Daily, Dar es Salaam
By Paulina David, Mwanza

The government intends to revive a facility for training experts in the leather industry in Mwanza City.
With this in view, the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Marketing yesterday handed over such a facility to the Ministry of Communication, Science and Technology.

At the function, the permanent secretary in the Ministry of Communication, Science and Technology, Mr Florence Turuka, said leather technology had a few local experts. This is what had prompted the government to revive the training facility in a bid to groom more experts in the field, he said.

He explained that the facility would be affiliated to the Dar es Salaam Institute of Technology (DIT).

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From The Citizen Daily, Dar es Salaam
By Herman Meza, Shinyanga

Five civil servants died in a motor accident along the Mwanza-Shinyanga highway at Mwigumbi village in Kishapu District, Shinyanga Region, on Saturday evening.

One of the front tyres of an over speeding Land Rover 110 they were travelling in suddenly burst, leading to the vehicle with six civil servants aboard rolling five times. Its driver and his four passengers were killed on the spot.

The civil servants were travelling from May Day celebrations held at regional level in Maswa District, also in Shinyanga Region. One of them had emerged the best worker in the region.

The Shinyanga regional medical officer, Dr Costa Mniko, named the deceased as the sub-treasury stock verifier, Mr Zakaria Miyumbo and sub-treasury accountants, Messrs Ntarugera Mboyogo and Charles Kasiri.

Others were a storekeeper with the regional Government Stores, Mr Ibrahim Kipengele, who emerged the overall best worker during the May Day celebrations, and the driver, Mr Juma Njoroge.

The condition of the sole survivor in the grisly accident, a senior accountant with the sub-treasury, Mr Deusdedit Mesu, was progressing well yesterday, the regional medical officer said.

Mr Mesu said at the Shinyanga regional hospital, where he was nursing his wounds yesterday, that the vehicle was at a speed of 120 kilometres when the front wheel tyre burst at around 6:30pm.

Environmental abuse water down Ukerewe`s credit to Lake Victoria

From The Guardian on Sunday, Dar es Salaam
By The Guardian correspondent

The popularity of a saying by the people of Ukewere Island that Inyaja itakutulwa na bulogo has been considerably watered down by the bitter realities related to Lake Victoria that hosts them.

The saying loosely translates as “the huge lake is immune to being bewitched and shall live forever,” but the sad stories of Lulakubi Mukama and his colleagues contradict that declaration.

The 56-year-old angler at Namasabo landing beach, in Bukanda Ward, Ukerewe District, is experiencing the cost of the lake’s environmental degradation in disbelief.

Three years ago, the beach was enjoying a good catch of Nile perch in terms of tons but the number has dwindled to single digits.

“Back in 2007 we used to get a maximum of 1.5 to 2 tons of Nile perch from the lake but by now (around 11:50am), we have harvested only 5 kilogrammes of fish; yesterday we got only 30 kilogrammes,” explains Mukama.

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Youth dies as he takes test to join the forces

From The Citizen Daily, Dar es Salaam
By Anthony Mayunga, Serengeti

A young man died during an interview to join National Service in Serengeti district, Mara Region, police officers and the district authorities have confirmed.

The man, whose name could not be established immediately, was give orders to run four times around a football pitch along with others as part of the interview, but he suddenly fell down and lost consciousness.

He was pronounced dead at around 10am on Friday.

The deceased, who traveled all the way from Mwanza City for the interview, was staying with a relative, who is a police officer; according to fellow interviewees who talked on condition that they were not identified.

The Nyerere District Designated Hospital medical officer in-charge, Dr Amos Kittoh, confirmed that the body of the youth was sent to the hospital mortuary for postmortem.

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