THE PUBLIC HAS BEEN LEFT OUT; THEY ARE NOT BEING LISTENED TO. THEY HAVE TAKEN ACTION!

For a long time, a long debate concerning the new constitutional process has been done by influential people or groups like politicians, academicians and those who can access the media. But the marginalized groups in the community at grass root levels have been so silent as if they have nothing to say.

If you pay attention to what is going on in villages and even at other public gatherings, you will realize just how much the public is following up on the ongoing process. At markets, local bars and other small gatherings, there are discussions concerning the new constitution process, where they talk about what issues they want or would want to see in the new constitution.  But, what impact will the discussions at community level have? Will higher authorities really hear their voices?

The question of who does what, what he says and for whose benefit in the Constituent Assembly or at any major debates in conferences and festivals which grass roots community are not allowed to attend are written in newspapers and thus, the information gets to the public. The society also follows up on what is going on through the radio and newspapers, bearing in mind that even people with cheap phones can still be informed because even cheap phones have radios. Whatever information they get concerning what is being said about the new constitution, they discuss and strategize on how they will make sure their voices are heard or how leaders will get their views.

Because there aren’t any forums and discussions that are held legally by our governments especially village government or ward, members of the society have now started a movement something called ‘Jamii Voice’, which is found at the following wards; Kisarawe (Pwani), Mkambarani (Morogoro Vijijini), Songwa (Kishapu), Songea town and in Mwananyamala (Kinondoni). The public has started movements of small community  goups which have come to make even bigger movements which collects the voices of many and spreads them out to the general public.  Through these movements, they are able to contact local media especially community radios and work with them.

At ward levels, these networks collaborate with community members to air out their voices and communicate directly with the Members of the Constituent Assembly, without having to write a letter or even going to meet with them in Dodoma. These networks tell the Members of the Constituent Assembly what to say and what they want to see happening during the process of getting a new constitution.

In 2013, while Constitutional Councils were taking place, members of the community used this same method of passing information to inform each other about participating in the Constitutional Councils and later on they teamed up to conduct  institutional  Constitutional Councils,, whereby they informed each other and got opinions of many other members of the society through bulk sms system. I was fortunate enough to meet some society members who participate in this program of airing out the “jamii voice” through Bulk sms systemc. One of them is Janeth Mawinza from Mwananyamala Knowledge Center, who while talking about her experience of how the movement works in their ward; she said that they have a small network pant that enables them to send short messages in the form of sms to more than a 1000 people instantly. She says that they follow up on what is going on in the Constituent Assembly then write a short message stating what kind of discussions they would like and what they would like to see in the process of getting the new constitution. The messages are then sent to members of the Constituent Assembly

“This movement has helped make a push and show how we, citizens at local levels can follow what our representatives discuss in the Constituent Assembly.  We tell them what we want to see happening in the process through messages that each of them receive and reads on his or her phone, so if some don’t care about the rights of the public, they will not talk about what we sent them”, says Janeth.

Very often, the general public has been complaining that they have been left out from the process of getting a new constitution due to the Members of the Constituent Assembly dividing themselves in terms of groups and political ideology inside the Constituent Assembly, while leaving the general public without a leader.

Janeth says that because many women have phones but cannot access T.V’s or radios, they use this sms system to pass information to women because they will get informed wherever they will be, even when they are cooking, and later they take action.” Example: If you send a message saying that there will be a rally tomorrow, there is a possibility of getting a bigger turn up compared to when you announce it in the media like newspaper or television stations”, she says.

In Kisarawe, members of the community who work at the Kisarawe knowledge center at Kisarawe village and Visegese village, also use this short sms system to mobilize the public to joint their campaign of preserving forests and the fight against Gender Based Violence in the society and the availability of important services such as water, healthcare, education and infrastructure for the society, especially women.

They use this system of informing the public to spread messages to over 5000 villagers together with community leaders instantly, and they get a positive response from the society depending on what message was sent. When in town, these members of the community at the station of information and knowledge reach community members in villages where vehicles can’t reach due to poor infrastructure.

“In Kisarawe, this system has helped us keep each other informed. Normally, we first send messages to our leaders through short sms messages reminding them to fulfill their promises in the villages, and then we later follow up on the implementation. This system has also helped us in our campaigns of fighting against Gender Based Violence in villages which can’t easily get access to information”, says Simon Mpunga, the coordinator of IGN Kisarawe, who is also the Chairman of the Kisarawe Knowledge Center.

However, they have also used that system to encourage village leaders to take action against people who are the source of girls dropping out of school because of impregnating them. They also used this system to motivate people to follow discussions in the Constituent Assembly right before it commenced. Before the draft constitution came out, they also motivated all the community members of Kisarawe to follow the process of getting the second draft of the new constitution so as to know what issues concerning the citizens have been included in the draft constitution and to defend them so that they are not removed by the members of the Constituent Assembly.

We have every right to commend this movement that because it has enabled the public to stand up to demand changes. Citizens taking action is better than depending on people who at times are driven by political ideology or their own personal interests to stand up for them

We have seen the results of having a Constituent Assembly that has more than 600 members, some of who are a part of the original Parliament Assembly that are used to running the Assembly politically. But when citizens feel that they have been left out and their voices not heard, they decide to take action in to their own hands and raise their own voices through movements.

These members of the Constituent Assembly use time and resources of the public to defend their political titles so that those titles don’t get eliminated through the New Constitution. But the situation is now changing; citizens have woken up and are now aware of their rights, thus having the strength to fight for visible changes.