DAR es Salaam

With the general elections set for October, Tanzanians are asking themselves what kind of Head of State have we subjected ourselves to in President Jakaya Kikwete - popularly referred to as Jay Kay.

Whatever reasons drove us to vote him into power with an overwhelming majority in 2005, we have had a decent period of time to observe him as an individual and test the mettle of his leadership.

There are probably as many opinions about President Kikwete as there are citizens.

Certainly in the course of informally surveying people, statements have ranged from complete dismissal through to fierce loyalty.

Not that Jay Kay is a polarizing figure mind you, it is just that if three Tanzanians are debating a political issue you will get at least five-and-a-half opinions out of them.

I myself am a sympathizer: many little boys- and a few brave little girls- imagine that they will one day be President, but very few have what it takes to make it happen.

Like all Tanzanian presidents bar Julius Nyerere, Jay Kay comes from a rather humble background, ergo he is closer to Obama than George W. Bush on the individual agency/intellect scale.

Since the ruling party Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM) is going to be launching its marketing, sorry, election campaign soon along with a detailed enumeration of their 'successes,' as perceived by themselves, I will focus on the broader things that this President and his administration have handled well:

1. Firing people in high places: Former Prime Minister Edward Lowassa, the late Governor of the Central Bank Daudi Ballali, Former Minister and one-time Attorney General Andrew Chenge, a number of hapless District Commissioners and the rest of the smug untouchables who have been canned within the past three years can attest: that loud whoosh was the sound of political elites’ impunity flying out the window. There is something to be said for setting such a deeply satisfying precedent. One day we might even find someone guilty of corruption, but let me not get ahead of myself.

- Hiring good people: The current Prime Minister, Mizengo Pinda is a decent lifetime civil servant. Chief Justice Augustino Ramadhani, Tanzania Broadcasting Corporation head Tido Mhando, national football team Taifa Stars coach Marcio Maximo- all of them seasoned professionals who have been recruited, promoted, sometimes relocated in order to shore up important institutions.

And these are a just a few of the easily visible ones. Considering his vast powers of appointment Jay Kay seems to be gunning for good lieutenants rather than simply rewarding his puppets, campaign funders, political allies and other presidential hangers-on. Although, naturally, he must do that too.

- Doing his bit for democracy: Vain he might be, but Jay Kay is not driven by the egotistical Bigmanism that continues to plague so many African heads of state. His occasional tantrums seem to be reserved for instances of incompetence that waste his time, such as lapses in protocol at State House events.

He generally faces vocal opposition and criticism with equanimity. This has served to set an excellent tone: within reasonable boundaries, Tanzanians can happily cast aspersions all over the government.

We obviously take advantage of this, especially in the blogosphere. Since so much of democratic discourse relies on intelligently vocal malcontents, things are slowly looking up for us and for civil society. At heart, I suspect that Jay Kay genuinely believes in this whole public service, will-of-the-people business. True democrats are a rare breed.

But on the flip side...

-Jay Kay and his youthful crew of flyboys (ministers and various other minions) have glamorized politics. I know that this is in keeping with our image-conscious, popular media-driven age. Fleets of State House BMWs, billboards with His Grinning Beauteousness smiling down at us at major intersections, politicians getting overly dramatic in Parliament...where is the decorum? I can't help but feel nostalgic for the stodgier times of yore when Tanzanian politicians had to keep it simple. At least we were spared the hysterics.

- The corruption problem. Jay Kay was in President Mkapa's cabinet as Minister for Foreign Affairs for a decade before he became President, so all the fishy deals and grand corruption cases that we are grappling with at present happened when he was in government. There are all kinds of implications in that, and naturally this weakens the credibility of his anti-corruption campaign.

- He travels all the time. All the time. Dear international community: stop sending Jay Kay invitations to receive honorary degrees, visit obscure Tanzanians Abroad societies, have a fireside chat about securing more aid, toodle around factories, examine the charms of Jamaican treetop tours or whatever else you have in mind. He can't resist them.

The man has itchy feet but it is costing us money and we need our President at home. Besides, our poor Minister of Foreign Affairs, Bernard Membe, is languishing in relative boredom and obscurity. Surely he could handle at least two or three of those donor-tickling trips per quarter.

There are more issues to wade through but those are the main points for now. To summarize, Jay Kay is a good fit for this stretch of Tanzania’s political journey: a free-marketeer with a redistributive philosophy, a technophilic democrat, a fierce patriot, a canny executive and a patient, dedicated, opportunistic man of ambition who lacks the predatory instincts that make the Putins of this world so creepy.

While I don't doubt that there are smarter, tougher, more sociopathic men out there who would make “better” leaders (read: more effective despots), Jay Kay is at worst inoffensive and at best very useful. This is not a bad range within which to work for a young African democracy.

Elsie Eyakuze is a Tanzanian blogger and media consultant. This piece was adapted from a post on her blog, The Mikocheni Report: http://mikochenireport.blogspot.com