Dar es Salaam Mayor locked out of office

Dar es Salaam City Mayor Isaya Mwita. PHOTO | FILE | NATION MEDIA GROUP

What you need to know:

  • Councillors from the ruling CCM party last week voted to impeach him.
  • Chaos ensued after councillors from the Opposition Chadema contested the decision.

Dar es Salaam. The fate of ‘ousted’ Dar es Salaam City Mayor Isaya Mwita still hangs in the balance after he found himself locked out of his office on Monday just days after a controversial impeachment vote.

Mr Mwita arrived at his office, located at Karimjee Hall, in the morning only to find out that the door locks had been changed.

Mr Mwita exuded disapproval at what had happened while promising that he would keep ‘fighting for his rights’.

Security persons in the area said they were acting on directives ‘from above’ that bar anyone from accessing the office.

“We are working on directives from our bosses and no one is allowed to access the area," said a security officer.

He, however, declined to get into the details and timeframe of the entry ‘ban’.

IMPEACHMENT DRIVE

On January 9, 2020, members of the Dar City Council cast a vote of no confidence against Mr Mwita with 16 councillors from the ruling CCM party voting against him, citing abuse of office and other issues of misconduct.

Chaos ensued after councillors from the Opposition Chadema contested the decision, saying it was against Dar es Salaam City Council standing orders.

According to Standing Orders No 84, Section 1, the Council may impeach the mayor by a resolution supported by two thirds of the members of the Dar es Salaam City Council.

Currently, the number of Council members of the city is 26, meaning its two-thirds is 17 members.

However, city executive director Sipora Liana said during the event that the decision was made based on the two thirds of members who attended the impeachment meeting on Thursday last week.

Speaking to The Citizen, the director said the number of members who cast votes was 17 and not 26, so the two-third needed to impeach the mayor was 11 of those present in the meeting.

“Currently the city has no mayor because no election has been held yet,” she said.

Deputy city mayor Abdallah Mtanika would be expected to take over the mayoral duties, if indeed Mr Mwita was impeached as per the procedures.