Staff ReporterTanzania’s prime minister has met the Kenyan high commissioner after he was summoned to explain comments by a Kenyan governing party MP that Tanzanian business people should leave his country.
MP Charles Njagua Kanyi said: “Tanzanians and Ugandans have taken our business, enough is enough”. He then said they would be beaten if they did not leave.
After the meeting between Prime Minister Kassim Majaliwa and High Commissioner Dan Kazungu, Mr Majaliwa said the two countries were friends and he was reassured that the comments were not coming from the Kenyan government.
During a parliamentary debate, the speaker of parliament also demanded that the Kenyan government denounce the comments.
Job Ndugai said that “if one Tanzanian will be beaten, Kenyans will see us there for breakfast”, meaning that Tanzanians will go and fight back.
Opposition leader Freeman Mbowe said the comments cannot be ignored:
“The xenophobia must be condemned. We have already seen the impact of such behaviour in South Africa and our people got killed, the Kenyan government should do something,” Mr Mbowe said.
Many Tanzanians have taken to Twitter to complain about the remarks by Mr Kanyi – who is also a musician known as Jaguar.
Jabir Saleh said: “Luckily I never liked his music… maybe he was a bad musician… and now he is a bad leader in East Africa.”
Another commenter highlights that Kenya and Tanzania will meet on Thursday at the Africa Cup of Nations.
Ben Kolowa said: “I hope we can win tomorrow and our stars send a message saying ‘Hi Jaguar'”.
