Tanzania scraps independence celebration, diverts funds to kids

President Samia Suluhu Hassan redirected this yr’s funds to constructing dormitories for kids with particular wants.

Tanzania's President Samia Suluhu Hassan [File: AP Photo]

Tanzania’s President Samia Suluhu Hassan has cancelled Independence Day celebrations scheduled for Friday and directed that the funds as an alternative be used to construct dormitories for kids with particular wants.

The 61st Independence Day occasion was to price $445,000, cash that shall be used to construct eight dormitories in main faculties across the nation.

Tanzania’s Minister of State, George Simbachawene, on Monday mentioned the cash had been disbursed.

He mentioned that as an alternative of getting parades and different nationwide celebrations, the East African nation will commemorate Independence Day by having public dialogues on improvement.

“The debates and conferences shall be preceded by varied schedules for regional and district leaders to hold out social actions in numerous areas together with cleansing hospitals, faculties, aged houses and teams with particular wants,” he mentioned.

Often, Independence Day celebrations are marked with pomp and state banquets.

This isn't, nonetheless, the primary time Tanzania has cancelled the celebrations.

In 2015, then-President John Magufuli cancelled celebrations and diverted funds in direction of the constructing of a highway within the industrial capital, Dar es Salaam.

In 2020, he did the identical and directed that the funds be used to purchase medical amenities.

The present president, Hassan, is Tanzania’s first feminine head of state.

She beforehand drew consideration by ordering big-bellied policemen to drop some weight to be simpler at work.

A long time earlier than she rose to greater workplace, she labored as a improvement officer within the Zanzibar authorities. She was additionally a mission supervisor for the UN’s World Meals Programme and later the manager director of an umbrella physique governing non-governmental organisations in Zanzibar.

She additionally beforehand served as a minister for youth employment, girls and kids, and has spoken publicly to encourage Tanzanian girls and ladies to pursue their desires.