Former Botswana president Ian Khama has said that he does not recognise the recently re-elected President of Tanzania, Samia Hassan, as the country’s rightful head of state.
Addressing a meeting in Lukenya University in Kenya, Khama condemned the conduct of Tanzania’s recent polls and the wave of repression that followed them.
“The recent election in Tanzania, and from what transpired, the killings around the election… I for one do not recognise the person who was inaugurated as the President of Tanzania. She is an illegitimate president,” Khama said.
Khama, who was president of Botswana between 2008 and 2018, also made reference to the 92-year-old President of Cameroon, who was also sworn in for another term as President earlier this month. The election was also marred by irregularities and followed by a bloody government crackdown. Biya has held power since 1982. Khama sardonically pointed to his inauguration “when he can hardly walk.”
In relation to the undermining of democratic processes, Khama opined: “It is totally unacceptable when an African leader, in order to stay in power, will resort to killing his or her own people. In order to stay in power, they will rig an election, as if they are God’s gift to their country. When you have a country with millions of people, for any leader to think they are the only ones who can be president is pathetic.”
Khama’s native country is a rare example of an African state that has retained a multi-party democracy since independence. He was, however, criticised for introducing a securocratic style of governance during his term as President.
[Image: By Foreign and Commonwealth Office – https://www.flickr.com/photos/foreignoffice/12498848125/, OGL v1.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=31245539]