Tibaijuka demotion tests EA relations

[Alpha]

Tibaijuka demotion tests EA relations

By DAVID OKWEMBAHPosted Saturday, March 7 2009 at 17:39
In Summary

Tanzania sent its envoy to plead to UN head Ban Ki-Moon to keep her, to no avail

This week’s demotion of Tanzania’s top diplomat at the United Nations Office at Nairobi (UNON) has soured relations between Kenya and Tanzania, the Sunday Nation has learnt.

Mrs Anna Kajumulo Tibaijuka, a Tanzanian national who headed the Nairobi office until last Sunday, was replaced by Achim Steiner, the United Nations Environmental Programme boss in Nairobi.

Relations between the two neighbouring nations, also members of the East African Community, are reported to be troubled following her demotion.

Tanzania made frantic efforts to ensure Mrs Tibaijuka was not demoted, including sending the country’s permanent representative to the United Nations in New York to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon.

These efforts were augmented by those of African diplomats in Nairobi and employees at the UN Nairobi office pleading with Mr Ban not to replace her.

The efforts failed and Mr Steiner sent a memo to all members of staff to alert them that Mr Ban had designated him as the Director General of UNON effective March 1, 2009.

Some employees at the Gigiri complex who refused to be named for fear of antagonising their superiors said Mrs Tibaijuka was seen to have favoured one of the Grand Coalition members, a key factor in her demotion.

Mrs Tibaijuka has been in Nairobi since 2001 when she was named to head UN-Habitat and later promoted to Director General of UNON in September 2006.

According to correspondence in our possession, the move to clip her wings began last September after the UN General Assembly in New York.

Kenya’s role

Kenya is accused of playing a key role in having the Tanzanian replaced after it proposed to Mr Ban that the Nairobi office be elevated, with an independent Director General who is not linked to any of the two programmes, Unep and UN-Habitat, heading it.

Tanzania believes that those who wanted Mrs Tibaijuka out exploited this proposal to kick her out.

But as early as last November, African ambassadors in Nairobi were concerned that there was an attempt to have Mrs Tibaijuka replaced.

Writing on behalf of heads of diplomatic missions in Nairobi, Mozambique permanent representative to Unep and UN-Habitat, Mr Marcos Namashulua, pleaded with Mr Ban not to demote the Tanzanian diplomat.

The dean of African diplomats in Nairobi cautioned that the abrupt demotion of Mrs Tibaijuka would cast her negatively.

“You may recall that her appointment was made in spite of attempts by some elements to discredit her,” Mr Namashulua said, adding that her removal would vindicate attacks against her.

The envoy further said that her removal, coming just days after a multi-billion-shilling scandal in which she had no involvement, would indicate that she had failed in her management role.

Mr Namashulua said Mr Steiner would find it difficult “to operate with the trust and confidence of some staff and delegates.”

In a second letter to Mr Ban on February 26, 2009, the Mozambican diplomat lamented that the policy of removing one executive head only to be replaced by another would create problems.

“We foresee it would only serve to spoil an otherwise harmonious relationship between the executive heads operating from this duty station,” said Mr Namashulua.

He said that since the Secretary General had failed to create an independent Director General as requested by Kenya, Mrs Tibaijuka should be allowed to conclude her term.

The president of staff at UNON, Ms Rhoda Atana, writing to the UN boss on the same day, said the Nairobi office was tense over rumours of the imminent removal of Mrs Tibaijuka as the Director General.

Ms Atana said the Tanzanian diplomat had headed UNON well before violence broke out in Kenya after the 2007 General Election.

Mrs Tibaijuka was the only woman appointed a director general of a UN duty station.

“We, therefore, believe her removal from office would be against the principles of gender balance that you have been promoting,” Ms Atana told Mr Ban.

Mr Ban had in January said there were no plans to have an independent director general named for Nairobi.

He said the position did not exist and member states had not provided resources for it.

Angry employees

It came as a surprise last month when word went round that Mr Steiner was taking over from Mrs Tibaijuka, whose tenure was to end in 2010.

Employees at Gigiri held a silent gathering at the complex to express their concern over the demotion.

Another demonstration was held in Kibera where UN-Habitat is supporting a slum upgrading project together with the government.

The UN-Habitat boss did not appear at any of the two functions although a close ally of the diplomat told the Sunday Nation that she was “devastated” by the demotion.

Mrs Tibaijuka left Nairobi for Liberia on Thursday night with the final destination for her trip said to be New York.

She is expected to confer with Mr Ban but sources in her office declined to reveal the reasons for her New York trip

DAILY NATION - Tibaijuka demotion tests EA relations

 

[Bulesi]

Ilikuwa inasemekana kuwa Jakaya na huyo Ban katibu mkuu wa U.N. ni marafiki kwa hiyo katika ziara yake hapa Tanzania Jakaya angeweza kumpigia debe Tibaijuka akabaki kwenye nafasi yake hiyo ya ukuu hapo Nairobi. Sasa kama imeshindikana na Tibaijuka ameondolewa, nabashiri kuwa basi hata huyo Asha-Rose sidhani kama atadumu muda mrefu huko U. N.; kwani inasemekana wazungu wanampiga vita sana na huyu mkorea anaonekana hana ubavu wa kumtetea!!

 

[nzala]

Ilikuwa inasemekana kuwa Jakaya na huyo Ban katibu mkuu wa U.N. ni marafiki kwa hiyo katika ziara yake hapa Tanzania Jakaya angeweza kumpigia debe Tibaijuka akabaki kwenye nafasi yake hiyo ya ukuu hapo Nairobi. Sasa kama imeshindikana na Tibaijuka ameondolewa, nabashiri kuwa basi hata huyo Asha-Rose sidhani kama atadumu muda mrefu huko U. N.; kwani inasemekana wazungu wanampiga vita sana na huyu mkorea anaonekana hana ubavu wa kumtetea!!

Lete source, sio kusema tu inasemakana wanampiga vitu.kisha tuweze kujadili hapa JF

 

[Yona F. Maro]

Maneno uliyotumia sio mazuri sio ya amani rekebisha lugha zako tumia lugha za ukarimu

 

[BAK]

Powerful interests plotted Tibaijuka abrupt removal

Certain people were from the start uncomfortable with Mrs Anna Tibaijuka's 2006 appointment to head the UN Office in Nairobi. Photo/FILE

By JOHN MBARIA
THE EAST AFRICAN

Posted Saturday, March 7 2009 at 00:19​

Powerful vested interests within the United Nations are suspected to be behind the removal of Mrs Anna Tibaijuka from the helm of the United Nations establishment in Nairobi.

UN littered with failed projects, but few heads roll

It appears that certain people had from the start been uncomfortable with Mrs Tibaijuka's 2006 appointment to head the United Nations Office in Nairobi (UNON).

"When it became evident that she was to be appointed to the post, they initiated an investigation against her, claiming that she had misused a her official vehicle, and reported the matter to the former UN secretary general, Kofi Annan," said a UN official who declined to be named, citing the risk to his job.

But Mr Annan ignored the claims as he appointed Mrs Tibaijuka to head UNON until 2010.

A clique of officials who worked under Mrs Tibaijuka at the UNON appear finally to have managed to convince current UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon that she was to blame for the serious issues documented in an audit report published last year.

Last week, the media carried reports that Mr Ki-moon had appointed the current Director of the United Nations Environment Programme, Achim Steiner, to replace Mrs Tibaijuka at UNON.

The Tanzanian national was appointed by Mr Annan to replace a former head of Unep , Dr Klaus Toepfer, whose term of office ended on March 31, 2006.

Like her replacement, Dr Toepfer is also a German national who had headed the country's environment ministry before starting his term at Unep.

But according to a long trail of confidential documents made available to The Eastfrican, it would seem Mrs Tibaijuka was penalised over things that happened before she took office at UNON.

There is also evidence that her days were numbered the moment she started questioning serious fraud affecting, among other things, the procurement for the construction of a $25 million project to upgrade the UN headquarters at Gigiri in Nairobi.

Commencing in 2001, UN headquarters in New York had been providing a stream of funds for the job.

However, there appear to have been delays that Mrs Tibaijuka, as the head of UNON, was asked to explain.

But she did not have an answer because all along, she had been kept in the dark," said a highly placed source at UNON who did not want to be named.
Related Stories

The EastAfrican has also seen documents showing that the director in-charge of UNON's procurement, Alexander Barabanov, had been reporting directly to an Under-Secretary General at UN Head Office in New York, Angela Kane, a German national.

The same official had formally authorised Mr Barabanov to oversee all financial and procurement services at UNON as per a letter dated May 19, 2005. So, by the time Mrs Tibaijuka assumed headship of UNON, Mr Barabanov had been in charge of procurement for a year.

It appears that immediately Mrs Tibaijuka assumed office, she ordered the audit, which was to cover the period between 2004 and 2006, when UNON was headed by Mr Toepfer. When the report was released on February 28, 2008, it detailed serious fraud.

Conducted by the Office of Internal Oversight Services' Internal Audit Division, the audit report said UNON could have lost as much as Ksh10 billion ( $130 million) in procurement and administrative irregularities over the period.

The scandal was blamed on employees who were alleged to have had links with companies given contracts by both Unep and UN-Habitat who grossly inflated costs of goods and services procured by the UN body.

The audit report came shortly after the UN headquarters in New York had been told how poor management and inadequate accountability had hampered construction work meant to upgrade the Nairobi Office to the same status as the Geneva and Vienna offices.

The EastAfrican has also seen documents showing that after she received the audit report, Mrs Tibaijuka acted by separating UNON's procurement arm from its support services. This is contained in an information circular she released on August 4, 2008.

However, the head of pocurement, Vibekke Gravind, reacted by writing to Mr Ki-moon on September, 26, 2008, challenging Mrs Tibaijuka's decision.

Interestingly, the UN boss did not write formally to Mrs Tibaijuka revoking her 2006 appointment by Annan.

She is said to have learnt about the decision from her successor via e-mail. She there upon wrote to the Secretary General on February 28 seeking to know her official status.

Upon receiving Tibaijuka's letter, Mr Ki-moon wrote back the same day confirming that he had indeed replaced her. "I hereby confirm my decision communicated to you (by Steiner)..." Even so, this letter did not outright say whether he had revoked her appointment.

Since the matter came into the limelight, observers have been questioning not just the behaviour of the secretary general, but also the roles that Germany, Russia and, apparently, Kenya have played in the matter.

It is said that Russia has been unhappy that Mrs Tibaijuka's effort to reform UNON appeared to target its national, Mr Barabanov.

Germany, through its national, Mr Steiner, has been the main beneficiary.

On its part, Kenya - particularly one of the partners in the Grand Coalition government - is said to have been silently uncomfortable with Mrs Tibaijuka's role in inviting Kofi Annan to mediate the National Accord.

It appears that Kenya had officially complained against Mr Barabanov over remarks the latter had made against the country.

According to a letter written by Kenya's Foreign Affairs Permanent Secretary, Thuita Mwangi, to Mrs Tibaijuka on March 20, 2007, Kenya was angered by Mr Barabanov for questioning "the country's ability to handle arrangements" for one of the organisation's regular meetings.
It appears that Mrs Tibaijuka took this as a serious breach of UN diplomacy for she escalated the matter by reporting the latter to the UN Secretary General.

Moreover, an internal UN investigation says that Mr Barabanov "acknowledged that he improperly" had the UN Chief of Security issue him a UNON firearm and a temporary firearm permit; the Office of Internal Oversight Services had recommended action against him.

 

[Jasusi]

Kuna mtu aliwahi kuniambia kuwa UN is run like a mafia clan with the Russians pulling a lot of strings.

 

[MzalendoHalisi]

Kuna mengi yamefichika..things are being brought to light slowly!

UN nako pia Uswahili Mtupu!

Pia na Ufisadi pia upo..wa 10% za procurement contracts!

Je nani atamshikia bango mwingine??

 

[Bongolander]

So far ni mzee Malecela tu aliyeliweza jukwaa la siasa za kimataifa. Siasa hizo zinahitaji mambo mengi sana. Naona Tanzania bado hatujajiandaa vya kutosha kuwa kwenye siasa za kimataifa. Binafsi sikuona credentials za Dk Asha kuwa na ofisi aliyonayo, wanaompinga hawampingi kwa kuwa ni mtanzania kwa kuwa hana credentials zinazotakiwa na bado haja-deliver kuwaprove wrong wanaompinga. Bado tuko week kwenye siasa za kimataifa.
Tumezoea siasa za Tanzania ambazo ni za majungu, fitna, ubabe na vitisho, na kutumia ofisi zetu kunasa vimwana. Siasa za nje zinahitaji vitu vingine kabisa ambavyo sisi ni kama tunavipuuza.

 

[Abdulhalim]

MODS,

Hii iunganishwe na hii https://www.jamiiforums.com/international-forum/25366-warusi-wajerumani-na-wakenya-wamemhujumu-tibaijuka.html

 

[Kuhani]

By JOHN MBARIA
THE EAST AFRICAN
Posted Saturday, March 7 2009

It appears that certain people had from the start been uncomfortable with Mrs Tibaijuka's 2006 appointment to head the United Nations Office in Nairobi (UNON). "When it became evident that she was to be appointed to the post, they initiated...

Why would these "certain people" be uncomfortable with Ms. Tibaijuka even before her appointment?

It appears that immediately Mrs Tibaijuka assumed office, she ordered the audit, which was to cover the period between 2004 and 2006, when UNON was headed by Mr Toepfer. When the report was released on February 28, 2008, it detailed serious fraud.

Did she take any disciplinary measures after these findings? Not to mention criminal action. Points to a leadership style that tolerated massive wrongdoing and fraudsters.

…However, there appear to have been delays that Mrs Tibaijuka, as the head of UNON, was asked to explain. But she did not have an answer because all along, she had been kept in the dark," said a highly placed source at UNON who did not want to be named.
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Okay, again, another indication of incredible naiveté on Ms. Tibaijuka's part. She sat there with no answers about questionable developments under her nose while she knew or should have known that in the end she's the one they were going to hold ultimately responsible for. For each and every unraveling at UN office in Nairobi.

The EastAfrican has also seen documents showing that after she received the audit report, Mrs Tibaijuka acted by separating UNON's procurement arm from its support services. This is contained in an information circular she released on August 4, 2008. However, the head of pocurement, Vibekke Gravind, reacted by writing to Mr Ki-moon on September, 26, 2008, challenging Mrs Tibaijuka's decision.

That demonstrates that she was heading a ramshackle office structure. You can't run an office where subordinate tattletales have latitude to run around rating to the secretary general defying your decisions. You address and seek absolute clarification of administrative protocol at your office from headquarters in New York. Or you resign in honor!

Since the matter came into the limelight, observers have been questioning not just the behaviour of the secretary general, but also the roles that Germany, Russia and, apparently, Kenya have played in the matter.

What was Germany's beef against her?

On its part, Kenya - particularly one of the partners in the Grand Coalition government - is said to have been silently uncomfortable with Mrs Tibaijuka's role in inviting Kofi Annan to mediate the National Accord.

If Kenya was "silently uncomfortable" what did you uncover that they did to plot her demotion?

According to a letter written by Kenya's Foreign Affairs Permanent Secretary, Thuita Mwangi, to Mrs Tibaijuka on March 20, 2007, Kenya was angered by Mr Barabanov for questioning "the country's ability to handle arrangements" for one of the organisation's regular meetings.It appears that Mrs Tibaijuka took this as a serious breach of UN diplomacy for she escalated the matter by reporting the latter to the UN Secretary General.

So, Tibaijuka went to bat for the Kenyans by taking action against the Russian who ripped Kenya's ability to arrange meetings yet the Kenyans discredited her? I don't trust the Kenyans, with all their efforts aimed at gypping Tanzania for our land in the name of east African community, but this point here doesn't help advance your speculation that they conspired in the plot. The speculation that they took umbrage at her invitation of Annan to mediate warring factions last year may make sense. By the way, who is to blame when the arrangements for regular meetings can not be handled, the host country or the UN office?

A clique of officials who worked under Mrs Tibaijuka at the UNON appear finally to have managed to convince current UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon that she was to blame for the serious issues documented in an audit report published last year.

You mention that the audit was ordered by her after she became the head of the office, and you are giving every implication that secretary general Ki-Moon sided with procurement officers as they sought to wield authority independent of Tibaijuka's supervision. So, if Ki-Moon himself nurtured such compartmental power structure, he could not, then, be convinced that Tibaijuka was to blame for the irregularities. Unless Ki-Moon himself had it in for her, a possibility you would have to provide possible reasons for. Otherwise the incoherent point you are making undercuts the picture you are trying to paint in defense of Ms. Tibaijuka.

The EastAfrican has also seen documents showing that the director in-charge of UNON's procurement, Alexander Barabanov, had been reporting directly to an Under-Secretary General at UN Head Office in New York, Angela Kane, a German national.

This means she could not be blamed for procurement issues, unless we are intimating that secretary general Ki-Moon has no common sense at all, a very herculean case to make.

Reminiscent of a recent power struggle involving a Tanzanian minister who defied a protocol system whereby his immediate deputy reported to a different executive at the president's office on matters of public procurement. When faced with serious allegations of meddling in procurement process on a multimillion dollar tender deal involving a checkered French company the politically savvy minister quickly dispatched a rambling, finger pointing letter to the prime minister accusing officials at the president's office of sidelining his authority on ministry work that he claimed he bore ultimate responsibility for. And that saved his life.

Tibaijuka has proved a lesser political schemer: she just sat there passively while underlings and outsiders drew up plans to roll her head. The same way an unsophisticated peasant from the backwaters of Africa lands in big city and stands in the middle of a busy street wowed and dumbfounded by glittering neon lights and traffic signals only to be knocked dead by oncoming traffic.

Detail surrounding Ms. Tibaijuka's demotion is sketchy, no doubt, and reports from east African press are patchy, to say the least, but suffice is to say she was presiding over an incredibly shambolic duty station in Nairobi, with hardly a structure and discipline. A tremendous diplomat, unquestionably, but politically she may 've been in over her head for an office with entrenched Russian roughnecks and conniving Kenyans.

 

[Shadow]

Why would these "certain people" be uncomfortable with Ms. Tibaijuka even before her appointment?



Why weren't any disciplinary measures taken after these findings? Not to mention criminal action. Points to a leadership style that tolerated massive wrongdoing and fraudsters.



Okay, again, another indication of incredible naiveté on Ms. Tibaijuka's part. She sat there with no answers about questionable developments under her nose while she knew or should have known that in the end she's the one they were going to hold ultimately responsible for. For each and every unraveling at UN office in Nairobi.



That demonstrates that she tolerated a ramshackle office structure. You can't run an office where subordinate tattletales have latitude to run around rating to the secretary general defying your decisions. You address and seek absolute clarification of administrative protocol at your office from headquarters in New York. Or you resign in honor!



What was Germany's beef against her?



If Kenya was "silently uncomfortable" what did you uncover that they did to plot her demotion?



So, Tibaijuka went to bat for the Kenyans by taking action against the Russian who ripped Kenya's ability to arrange meetings yet the Kenyans discredited her? I don't trust the Kenyans, with all their efforts aimed at gypping Tanzania for our land in the name of east African community, but this point here doesn't help advance your speculation that they conspired in the plot. The speculation that they took umbrage at her invitation of Annan to mediate warring factions last year makes sense, though. By the way, who is to blame when the arrangements for regular meetings can not be handled, the host country or the UN office?



You mention that the audit was ordered by her after she became the head of the office, and you are giving every implication that the secretary general sided with procurement officers as they sought to wield authority on matters of procurement financing independent of her supervision. So, if secretary general Ki-Moon himself nurtured such compartmental power structure, he could not, then, be convinced that she was to blame for the irregularities. This incoherent point here, again, undercuts the picture you are trying to paint in defense of Ms. Tibaijuka.



That means she could not be blamed for procurement irregularities, unless we are intimating that secretary general Ki-Moon has no common sense at all, a very herculean case to make.

Reminiscent of a recent power struggle involving a Tanzanian minister who defied an protocol system whereby his immediate deputy reported to a different executive at the president's office on matters of public procurement. When faced with serious allegations of meddling in procurement process on a multimillion dollar tender deal involving a checkered French company the politically savvy minister quickly dispatched a rambling, finger pointing letter to the prime minister accusing officials at the president's office of sidelining his authority on ministry work that he claimed he bore ultimate responsibility for. And that saved his life.

Tibaijuka is proving a lesser political schemer: she just sat there passively while underlings and outsiders drew up plans to roll her head. The same way an unsophisticated peasant from the backwaters of Africa lands in big city and stands in the middle of a busy street wowed and dumbfounded by glittering neon lights and traffic signal only to be knocked dead by oncoming traffic!

Detail surrounding Ms. Tibaijuka's demotion is sketchy, no doubt, and reports from east African press are patchy, to say the least, but suffice is to say she was presiding over an incredibly shambolic duty station in Nairobi, with hardly a structure and discipline. A tremendous diplomat, unquestionably, but politically she may 've been in over her head for an office with entrenched Russian roughnecks and conniving Kenyans.

Mkuu Kuhani, heshima yako.

The question is if and only if she was a political appointee then she was/ is serving under the pleasure of the Ban Ki Moon,period. She should be lucky to be considered for 'the other job'. That is my observation. Do we know her appointment contract?

Shadow.

 

[Pepe]

WanaJamii,

Salaam alykum!

Asante kunipa nafasi

Mama Tibaijuka anatakiwa awaeleze watanzania nini hasa kilitokea akapokonywa wadhifa wake Nairobi na hivyo kuaibisha taifa. Je huyo Katibu Mkuu Ban Ki-Moon kwa nini hakuheshimu Makamu wake Mama Migiro? Ungetegemea Migiro angelimlinda Tibaijuka? Ni makosa gani aliyofanya Tibaijuka hata Migiro akashindwa kuingilia kati? Au yale yanayosemwa kwamba Migiro hana madaraka yoyote ni kweli? Au wanapingana? Mama Tibaijuka amekaa kwenye madaraka muda mrefu UN jambo ambalo linaonyesha umahili wake wa kazi? Iweje wafanyakazi kuandamana? Tunahitaji maelezo zaidi maana taifa hili haliwezi kunyanyasika namna hii bila maelezo. Balozi wetu Marekani aagizwe kuleta maelezo haraka. Hawa wanamama ni mabalozi wa taifa letu, wakiharibikiwa wote tunaharibikiwa? Kulikoni?

Ndugu yenu Pepe