25 October 2006, by PowerNell. The East African comes with a critical analysis on the cabinet reshuffle of president Kikwete. In this article it is said, amongst others, that Richmond Development sold Tanesco "an unserviceable second-hand Boeing 707 engines purporting to be new power equipment" (The East African, 23 October, 2006). It gets crazier by the day.

Richmond linked to president?

Let me give you the full quote: "Richmond, it turned out, was after all briefcase outfit owned by Tanzanians who call the shots at State House. Initial investigations link Richmond Development (...) to an Arusha-based tycoon. He is said to have bankrolled Kikwete's presidential campaigns when his party appeared to be wavering. It also emerged the directors of the briefcase company had sold to the state-owned Tanzania Electric Supply Company's (Tanesco) an unserviceable second-hand Boeing 707 engines purporting to be new power equipment."

Richmond generators are arrived in the country

Other news is that the Richmond generators have arrived in the country. This raises many questions, and no one can formulate them better than Makwaia wa Kuhenga, a senior journalist of The Citizen. I quote: "Last weekend suddenly all the big television houses had deployed their cameramen to record the arrival of the long awaited generators from a seemingly non-existent US based company, Richmond Development Inc.
As I watched the event unfold on prime time news Saturday night over the weekend, I had mixed feelings of both disgust and contempt for my own profession. Contemptuous because I had the feel that someone somewhere was pulling a trick in news management; trying to cool down public tempers over the whole Richmond furore or perhaps to cool down public opinion that the company in question was around and very much in place and my collegues in the electronic media were consciously agreeing to be manipulated!
Disgusted because media people sometimes have no choice but to be there to record an event even though they may know that some powerful individuals are manipulating them. (...)This scenario made my mind even more curious: so the company exists after all? (...) How good are the machines anyway? Who has checked them and certified them as up to the required standard? Has the state made any upfront payment? How much?" (Source: The Citizen, 23 October, 2006).

See for the complete analysis: The East African, Ernest Mpinganjira, October 23, 2006: Kikwete Lives in Utopian World As Tanzanians Wallow in Problems

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