Ugandans in Tanzania celebrate Independence

UGANDA INDEPENDENCE | TANZANIA     

The Ugandan community on Saturday celebrated the country's independence anniversary at the Serena Hotel in Dar es Salaam.

Ugandans were served dinner and drinks and danced up to late hours of the night. After the function ended, several others shifted to Emirates Club in the heart of the city where they continued with their celebrations until dawn.

The minister of foreign affairs and East African Co-operation of Tanzania, Dr. Augustine Mahiga, applauded President Yoweri Museveni and the government of Uganda for facilitating the repatriation of bodies of nationals who recently died in a road accident along the Kampala-Masaka highway.

He said that the Tanzanian government was consoled by Museveni when he sent Kampala Minister, Betty Kamya as a special envoy to accompany the 13 bodies and eight injured people and personally delivered a ‘warm message' from the President.

"On behalf of President Dr. John Pombe Magufuli and the people of Tanzania, we thank President Yoweri Museveni for facilitating the repatriation of bodies of our brothers and sisters who lost life in the road accident on September 18," Dr. Mahiga said.

He was on Saturday addressing the Ugandan community and friends living in Tanzania on celebrations to mark Uganda's 55th Independence anniversary. The function was organised by the newly appointed Uganda's high commissioner in Tanzania, Richard Kabonero. It was attended by the Ugandan business community in Tanzania, ambassadors and high commissioners, officials from Total, Tullow, Airtel and other companies.

 "This is a clear manifestation of the brotherly and sisterly relations that happily exists between our two countries. Indeed your caring heart touched the hearts of everyone, we can never that you enough and the people of Tanzania will never forget," he said.

Mahiga told guests that Uganda was not only ‘friends' with Tanzania but comrades in arms, being bound together by history, culture, geography and other interests.

"After the Independence of both our countries, our leaders tried to form a federation which did not work but made several attempts to craft meaningful economic and social cooperation, the first being the formulation of the East African Community," he said.

According to Mahiga, the EAC however registered a setback when former President, Idd Amin Dada failed to sustain relations and meetings with his counterpart, former President, the late Julius Nyerere, which he said resulted in Amin killing his own people and went ahead to claim the Tanzanian territory.

 "The political to sustain the EAC cooperation disappeared after there were no meetings between presidents Nyerere and Amin, but the main reason for breakdown was the differences the threat Amin posed to the Uganda people and TZ people".

He said Amin maimed and killed Ugandans and went on to claim part of the territory of Tanzania, which he said was a major threat to the integrity and sovereignty of Tanzania, which became the basis why the Tanzanians joined Ugandans to oust him," he said.

"When you duck bullets together, when you dig trenches together you sweat, when you die together and when you shed blood you cement that friendship, we should therefore consolidate this brotherly relationship and cooperation and translate it constructive engagement into economic advancement," he said.

Mahiga invited International companies to join Total, which he said had invested huge sums of money in the construction of the East Africa Crude Oil Pipeline, and be able to utilize the business opportunities it was bound to create. He thanked the French government for accepting to invest in the venture, which he said was one of the biggest in Africa and bound to change the lives of many people and create tributaries all over the East Africa region.

 He said the $3.5bn crude oil pipeline was a new artery of relationship added to the history, geography and culture and common features that bind the two countries together.

"This mega project is for everybody including those from outside Africa, the opportunities it will create will go beyond the projected 10,000 direct jobs to be created to prospectus investment companies, consultants and other partners who will be attracted to reap from it, it is an opportunity you should not miss," he said.

Mahiga said that the geographical forces that gave rise to the famous great Rift Valleys that became the cradle of humanity were starting to open up opportunities for the inhabitants in the region.

"We therefore invite entrepreneurs from all over the World to come to our region and look at the Rift Valley and turn it into a tourism seat and now because it has started revealing its potential and underneath secretes," he said.

Tanzania at this time, according to Mahiga, attaches great value to Uganda's relationship especially in the areas of oil cooperation and railway transport. He said Tanzania had injected its own money in the construction of a railway line from Dar es Salaam to Kigoma and invited Ugandans to make use of it.

Kabonero said that there was a lot to indicate that Tanzania and Uganda were on the track to boost economic cooperation and advancement.

He said two months ago, President Museveni and Magufuli met in Tanga to lay a foundation stone for the construction of the crude pipeline, which he said would create thousands of jobs and generate revenue for individuals and companies, which will in turn boost the economies of the two countries.

He said that during the recent Joint Permanent Commission in Arusha, a number of agreements were signed and the two governments were looking forward for rapid implementation of the memoranda signed.     

"In some of these understandings, we are looking forward to removing non-tariff barriers to enable people of our countries carry out smooth trade," he said.

He said that during his recent visit to Belgium, President Museveni represented the region and held a number of meetings with officials from the European Union, which are bound to benefit the region.