You are here > Tourism > Statistics > Introduction

Tanzania's President
President Jakaya Mrisho Kikwete (born October 7, 1950) is a Tanzanian politician and current President of the United Republic of Tanzania. Kikwete was born in Msoga, Bagamoyo District, Tanzania or as it was then known, Tanganyika.

Kikwete grew up witnessing the exercise of leadership by his grandfather Mrisho Kikwete as a local chief and father as a District Commissioner in colonial Tanganyika and Regional Administrative Secretary and an Ombudsman in post-colonial Tanganyika and the United Republic of Tanzania. He spent part of his childhood moving from one area of country to another as his father was transferred to different outposts. He also spent a better part of his childhood in the village under the guidance of his grandfather. Kikwete became a natural choice for leadership in school and later in the party (TANU and CCM) youth movements.

Overview Tanzania assumed its present form in 1964 after a merger between the mainland Tanganyika and the island of Zanzibar, which had become independent the previous year. Unlike many African countries, whose potential wealth contrasted with their actual impoverishment, Tanzania had few exportable minerals and a primitive agricultural system. To counter this, in 1967 its first president, Julius Nyerere, issued the Arusha Declaration, which called for self-reliance through the creation of cooperative farm villages and the nationalisation of factories, plantations, banks and private companies. But a decade later, despite financial and technical aid from the World Bank and sympathetic countries, this programme had completely failed due to inefficiency, corruption, resistance from peasants and the rise in the price of imported petroleum. Tanzania's economic woes were compounded in 1979 and 1981 by a costly military intervention to overthrow President Idi Amin of Uganda. After Nyerere's resignation in 1985, his successor, Ali Hassan Mwinyi, attempted to raise productivity and attract foreign investment and loans by dismantling government control of the economy. This policy was continued by Benjamin Mkapa, who was elected president in 1995. Members of the Cabinet Media Before the multiparty era began in the mid 1990s, Tanzania's media was small and largely state-controlled. However, with the onset of multiparty democracy the media rapidly grew, with dozens of newspapers appearing. The growth of the broadcast media has not been as rapid, largely because of the capital investment required to set up television and radio stations. To date, mainland Tanzania still does not have a national television station. Those that exist have a limited reach and are privately owned. The press Daily News - government owned Uhuru - government owned, in Swahili The Guardian - independent Daily Mail - independent Nipashe - independent, in Swahili Alasiri - independent, in Swahili Business Times - independent weekly The Express - independent weekly Television Independent Television (ITV) - privately owned DTV - Dar Television - independent Television Zanzibar Radio Radio Tanzania - state owned, broadcasts from Dar es Salaam in Swahili Sauti ya Tanzania Zanzibar (Voice of Tanzania and Zanzibar) - state owned Radio One - private Radio Uhuru - independent FM station News agency Press Services Tanzania .