KIKWETE BLAMES AFRICAN POVERTY ON COLONIALISM

Addressing a conference on the Progress of Africa in Madrid on Monday, President Jakaya Kikwete outlined seven factors which he said accelerate poverty on the continent one of which was colonialism.

He emphasised agriculture as the most promising sector in getting many people out of poverty since more than 70 per cent of the continent’s population live in rural areas.

Agriculture does not seem very important to President Kikwete in the Silverdale Farm case where despite his promises to the British government to apply the rule of law to the case he has watched British investors forced from the country by violence and intimidation instigated by Benjamin Mengi and facilitated by the police and judiciary together with members of his own government.  Investors that were providing agricultural investment and affording 150 Tanzanian staff a chance to escape the poverty Mr. Kikwete blames in part on colonialism.

The Silverdale Farm case presented President Kikwete with a choice. The choice to protect the bona fide interests of British investors doing what he asked them to do, invest or, the criminal activities of a well connected countryman and a corrupt judiciary and police force. He has chosen the later

Tanzania gained its independence in 1961 and since that date has received mounds of aid from its former colonisers. In August 2009 the European Commission made it's largest ever financial commitment to the Tanzania since the European Union corporation was founded in 1975 providing the country with E 385 million. Karel De Gucht stated "This substantial financial commitment demonstrates our confidence in the Tanzanian Government to aggressively tackle the economic challenges ahead, and to put good governance, accountability and the fight against corruption at the centre of their agenda" and to move towards securing it's Millennium Goal challenges.

Despite the mounds of aid given to Tanzania in the last half century it remains one of the poorest countries in the world. It is also one of the most corrupt. A factor not mentioned by President Kikwete.

Mr Kikwete stated  “the African  continent can get out of poverty by maintaining and protecting the successes which have been achieved, invest in human resources, provide safe and clean water to its people and construct infrastructure, including roads, electricity transmission lines, railways and ports. ”

And you can't do this because why? Because of your colonial past. Ummmmmmmmmm