Tanzanian Association Oslo

Kiwira `affair` under

investigation:

Daniel Yona already

questioned by PCCB

-Mkapa - not yet

THISDAY REPORTER
Dar es Salaam

FORMER senior cabinet minister Daniel Yona is amongst several people who have already been questioned by the Prevention and Combating of Corruption Bureau (PCCB) in connection with the controversial privatisation of the Kiwira Coal Mine in Mbeya Region, it has been confirmed.

Former President Benjamin William Mkapa (left) and Daniel Yona former minister of Energy and Minerals (right)

Well-placed sources have told THISDAY that Yona, who was minister in charge of energy and minerals when the then state-run coal mine was acquired by a private company established by none other than he and then president Benjamin Mkapa along with close family members, was questioned by PCCB investigators in Dar es Salaam sometime last month (January).

The confirmation comes on the back of a disclosure made in parliament yesterday by the Minister of State in the President’s Office (Good Governance), Phillip Marmo, to the effect that the Kiwira privatisation deal is now under official investigation for corruption.

It is the first time the government has made such an unequivocal statement with regard to the Kiwira ’affair’, as it has come to be known, involving as it does a former head of state let alone a former senior cabinet minister.

Contacted later after Marmo’s statement in the House, our sources said: ’’Yes, it is quite true that Yona has been questioned by investigators over his involvement.’’

The sources made it clear that the ex-minister, now retired from politics, was not the only one who had been questioned so far in the course of the PCCB investigation, saying other ’’shareholders and managers’’ of the coal mine had also been asked to give statements.

They, however, did confirm that ex-president Mkapa himself was yet to be officially questioned by investigators over his role in the affair.

It is understood that Mkapa and Yona jointly registered a private company called Tanpower Resources Company Limited in December 2004 while still serving as president and minister for energy and minerals, respectively and were also both directly involved in the privatisation process involving the then state-owned Kiwira coal mine.

This privatisation process culminated in mid-2005, when Tanpower Resources (then only a few months old) entered into a joint venture with the government to acquire 70 per cent of the Kiwira coal mine shares. The private company later increased its shareholding in the coal mine to 85 per cent, leaving the government with just 15 per cent.

At the time of its registration, the first listed directors of Tanpower Resources were the then first lady Mrs Anna Mkapa; Yona himself; Nicholas Mkapa (the then president and first lady’s son); Joseph Mbuna (Nicholas Mkapa’s father-in-law); and one Evans Mapundi.

Among other things, the company was licensed to ’’deal with coal mining in order to generate electricity for consumption and sale; to generate power generators, transmitters and general distributors; and to provide power and general projects management, project appraisers and consultants.’’

After the Tanpower Resources’ takeover, Nicholas Mkapa - the president’s son - was appointed to the board of directors of the renamed Kiwira Coal and Power Limited Company, while his father-in-law (Mbuna) became board chairman.

Kiwira Coal and Power Ltd has since entered into a whopping $271.8m (approx. 326bn/-) agreement of intent with the still state-owned Tanzania Electric Supply Company (TANESCO) to supply 200 megawatts of coal-fired electricity to the national grid.

And under equally dubious circumstances, the privatised Kiwira Coal and Power Ltd has also been given control of the Kabulo coal prospect, a nearby but separate area from Kiwira, also formerly owned by the government, and with proven reserves of up to 14 million tonnes of coal.

Minister Marmo’s statement in parliament yesterday was in response to a question from Dr Raphael Chegeni (Busega-CCM), who asked to be told what exactly the government was doing to tackle high-level corruption.

According to the MP, government investigators appeared more preoccupied with petty corruption, leaving perpetrators of grand corruption to slip through their fingers.

Declaring that the government was keen to fight corruption in high office as well, the minister cited the Kiwira affair probe as one of the ongoing investigations in this regard.

When allegations of corruption and abuse of office against Mkapa in particular first surfaced mid-last year, the PCCB director general Dr Edward Hosea, was quoted as saying the anti-graft watchdog would not investigate the ex-president.

In this light, it remains unclear if the current PCCB investigation into the Kiwira ’affair’ will at any point zero in on Mkapa, or make a point of avoiding him altogether despite his heavy involvement.