Questions raised over missing Tanzania leader John Pombe Magufuli

By Angela Nyakuni 

There is no smoke without fire, the African adage says. Therefore, questions have been raised over the health of Tanzanian President John Pombe Magufuli who has not been seen in public for 13 days.

The opposition leader Tundu Lissu is quoted saying that according to his sources the president is being treated in hospital for coronavirus in Kenya.

In fact, this cannot be verified, but still the government’s denial that President Magufuli is not sick is not well explained. Yet it takes 20 minutes of a TV clip to prove to the public that the president is busy with a pile of files.

President Magufuli has faced criticism for his mishandling of COVID-19, with his government refusing to buy vaccines.

Tanzania is the only  country in East Africa and Africa as whole that has not published its coronavirus cases since May last year. Earlier this month, at a funeral for a top presidential aide, President Magufuli said  that Tanzania had defeated COVID-19 the previous year and would win again this year.

The aide died hours after the vice-president of the country’s semi-autonomous islands of Zanzibar, who was being treated for COVID-19.

Another Tanzanian politician told Associated Press, on condition of anonymity for fear of a backlash, that he had spoken to people close to the president who said he was seriously ill and in hospital.

It would not be a surprise to Tanzanians that President Magufuli had contracted coronavirus as he had been reckless in the face of the virus.

“He has never worn a mask, he has been going to mass public gatherings without taking any precautions that people are taking all around the world,” Tundu Lissu the opposition leader told the the press from exile in Belgium.

“This is someone who has repeatedly and publicly trashed established medicine, he’s relied on prayers and herbal concoctions of unproven value,” he added

The 53-year-old alleged that Tanzania’s Finance Minister Philip Mpango was also being treated at the same hospital in Kenya’s capital.