Major Christian groups in Tanzania have rejected the proposed constitution set to go to a referendum next month.

While Catholic bishops in Tanzania have asked their congregations to reject the proposed law if the government refuses to heed their call to postpone it, the Christian Forum of Tanzania (CFT) has simply told the people to register and vote 'No'.

The CFT is a loose network of bishops from all Christian churches, except the Seventh Day Adventists and Jehovah’s Witness.

In a pastoral letter issued by the Tanzania Episcopal Conference (TEC), a college of 34 Catholic Bishops, and signed by its president Bishop Tarcisius Ngalalekumtwa, the church says the constitution-making process lacks integrity and transparency.

"We still remember how the constitution-making process was conducted … the members of the Constituent Assembly were forced to act in fear. There was no transparency,” reads the letter, which has been circulated to about 10 million Catholics.

The bishops say fast-tracking the process, which has no consent of the people, will add to the already existing rift in the society.

“People will erupt in anger because they know that the views they gave and included in the second draft have not been taken into account (in the proposed constitution)…and instead political interest of a few people have been given importance in the Proposed Constitution.”

“In this context, our stand and advice is the exercise to endorse the Proposed Constitution should be given more time [and] postponed until after General Election.”

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The church says there has been no adequate time to educate the public on the content of the proposed constitution.

“If the rulers will push for referendum, then the people should reject the Proposed Constitution.”

This would be a blow to the Jakaya Kikwete administration, which has vowed to have a new Constitution before the October elections. Opposition parties have called on their supporters to boycott the voting.

The letter, which has been circulated across the country, is a result of the bishops’ meeting on February 16 and 17 in Arusha “to pray and meditate on pertinent issues facing the country.”

Pastoral letters are usually issued when there is an urgent circumstance which needs the clergy to communicate to the faithful giving them directives, other admonitions and the directives therein are regarded by the faithful as morally-binding.

A communiqué by CFT has criticised the constitution-making process saying it was conducted with aggression against other groups and did not consider national values, human rights, reduction of presidential powers and rule of law.

“It should be remembered that the Proposed Constitution was passed in the Constituent Assembly after the Government had promised the Muslims to establish Islamic courts. It is surprising that even the government bribes its people to accomplish its missions,” reads part of the communiqué signed by Bishop Ngalalekumtwa on behalf of TEC, Bishop Alex Malasusa on behalf of Christian Council of Tanzania (CCT) and Bishop D. Awet on behalf of the Council of Pentecostal Churches in Tanzania (CPCT).

Tanzanian Muslims and Christians have been in a tug-of-war with Muslims demanding that Islamic courts be established as a division of the High Court to cater for marital and inheritance cases. Christians say that should not be financed with tax payers’ money.

Last year the Catholic Church had accused the ruling Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM) for hijacking the constitution-making process. It said in a statement that the people’s opinions gathered by the Constitution Review Commission had been deleted from the document, hence making the entire process lacking legitimacy.

Civil society, faith-based organisations and opposition parties have said the proposed constitution is not the outcome of the second draft of the constitution which emanated from the people’s views.

The people had proposed a number of issues which have been locked out of the proposed constitution, including the Union structure. The second draft proposed a three-tier government, comprising a Federal Government, Tanganyika and Zanzibar.

The proposed constitution has retained the current structure of union government and Zanzibar government.

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The second draft proposed a code of ethics for public servants than will, among others, prohibit civil servants having foreign bank accounts. That has been deleted from the proposed constitution.

While the people’s opinion wanted powers of the president such as appointment of senior government officials reduced, the new document which came out of Constituent Assembly has neither reduced the powers nor subjected the presidency to checks and balances.

Another issue which has also been rejected is interference between three pillars of the State - The Legislature, Executive and Judiciary in particular allowing a Member of Parliament to become a minister.

The people had proposed the constitution to provide for the people’s ability to fire non-performing MPs even before the end of their term, which has also been thrown out.

Opposition parties, under the umbrella of Union for the People’s Constitution have already announced to boycott the referendum citing irregularities and disregarding the people’s opinion.

Insecurity

Clerics have also raised their concerns over raising insecurity in Tanzania, with increasing incidents of killings of the people with albinism, children radicalisation and physical assaults against Christian clerics.

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While TEC in its separate pastoral letter rapped the killings of the people with albinism and emergence of the youth robber gangs in Dar es Salaam as signs of outrights bleach of peace, the CFT said there are clear signals of emergence of terrorist actions in Tanzania.

“The forum is concerned about indicators of terrorism which are beginning to emerge for nearly five years ago. There has been an incident which suggests germination of terrorism such as attack on police stations, Tanga banditry, and the recent children radicalisation in Kilimanjaro.

President Jakaya Kikwete in his last month address to the nation, explained incidents of bandits storming police stations in various parts of the country as acts of banditry with terrorist inclination.