PM clarifies quake victims donations

The government yesterday told the Parliament that nowhere had been said post-Kagera earthquake funds were going to be directly given to the victims.

The statement was made by Deputy Minister in the Prime Minister’s Office (Policy, National Assembly, Employment, Youth and People with Disabilities) Anthony Mavunde when responding to Mr Wilfred Lwakatare (Bukoba Urban-Chadema), who wanted to know why the victims of the earthquake, mainly from his constituency had been neglected despite having disaster management policies in place and donations given to help them.

“This issue is very clear, even when this House made its donations the government didn’t say they would give the money directly to the victims. Again, it is not right to say that we are not using it for the welfare of the victims, when the government is using the money to rehabilitate schools and hospitals that will benefit the same survivors,” said Mr Mavunde.

His response was, however, greeted with loud boos from opposition lawmakers, who were against the government’s decision to channel the funds for the rehabilitation of infrastructure instead of helping directly the victims.

On Tuesday, MP John Heche (Chadema) requested for the parliament leadership to reclaim their donation since it was going to be used not as intended.

Mr Heche said the Parliament specifically donated to benefit the victims and not the government.

“Yesterday (Monday) I received a number of phone calls from the victims, who still are still out in the cold as it continues raining. There is a possibility of a disease outbreak. This is an emergency.”

In his main question, Mr Mbarouk Salim Ali (Wete-CUF) said given the fact that the Great Rift Valley passed through Tanzania made the country vulnerable to tremors. He thus wanted to know the government’s preparedness to detect earthquakes and mitigate its effects.

Responding to that, Mr Mavunde said there were already nine detection stations across the country and already the government in collaboration with development partners and Ardhi University were conducting a vulnerability assessment across the country to identify all prone areas.

“Judging on the magnitude of the problem, the government is now preparing a national plan on preparation and mitigation of such disasters.”