Tanzania’s President Samia Suluhu Hassan has made more changes in her Cabinet and other key government departments, overhauling the Information ministry and naming a new police chief for Zanzibar, in a move that reflects efforts to control key departments ahead of next year’s general election.
Now, seasoned academic Prof Palamagamba Kabudi has been placed in charge of the Information docket and Gerson Msigwa restored as Chief Government Spokesman and permanent secretary in the ministry.
The pair will be jointly responsible for government relations with both local and international media in the lead-up to the October 2025, elections, where President Samia will be defending her incumbency and the ruling Chama cha Mapinduzi its huge majority in parliament.
Prof Kabudi's appointment and Mr Msigwa's reappointment have also reinforced public perceptions that the President is increasingly restoring her trust in loyalists of her predecessor John Magufuli, as she builds her core team for the election.
The 68-year-old Kabudi, who has a strong legal and media background, was Magufuli's foreign affairs minister at the time of Magufuli’s death in March 2021. He also served as Constitutional and Legal Affairs minister at different times under both Magufuli and Samia, who dropped him from her Cabinet in January 2022, only to reinstate him to the same ministry in August this year.
Mr Msigwa, a former radio journalist, was director of communications in the Magufuli State House and later appointed to his initial stint as Chief Government Spokesman after Samia took over.Â
In September 2023, he was moved to the Culture, Arts and Sports ministry as PS, a position that he will continue holding under a new arrangement which sees the information docket placed under the same ministry.Â
But questions have been raised about the rationale of splitting the Information and Communications and ICT portfolios, which effectively places media regulatory functions under two separate ministries.
The Tanzania Communications Regulatory Authority, which oversees electronic, social and digital media, remains under the the Ministry of Communications and ICT, where Jerry Silaa is minister, whereas the Tanzania Information Services department, responsible for print media regulation, is now part of the renamed Information, Culture, Arts and Sports ministry. Experts say this overlap has the potential to cause confusion.
President Samia has also appointed Kombo Khamis Kombo the new Commissioner of Police for Zanzibar, which has a history of becoming a particularly volatile in every Tanzanian election season.
Mr Kombo replaced Hamad Khamis Hamad, who was among several government functionaries awarded ambassadorial jobs to yet undetermined stations.Â
Innocent Bashungwa, previously minister of Works, was named Home Affairs minister in place of Hamad Masauni, who became Minister of State in the Vice-President's Office in charge of Union and environmental matters.
Mr Bashungwa's new job comes against the backdrop of widespread public criticism of the police and law enforcement agencies over failure to deal with rampant cases of abductions in recent months, putting the Home Affairs ministry under the spotlight.Â
The new appointees, announced in quick succession on Sunday and Monday, were set to be officially sworn in at a scheduled ceremony officiated by President Samia in Zanzibar on Tuesday.Â
