PART II: TANZANIA'S EXPERIENCE WITH DECENTRALIZATION: A CHRONOLOGY OF EVENTS

2.1 Introduction

Local government as an administrative system has had troubled history in Tanzania. According to Mukandala (1998:7) attempts to implement decentralization in Tanzania have been done twice. The first was during the colonial period when independent local institutions were brought under colonial rule and at some point administered under the colonial local government system. This however ended in 1969 with the postcolonial government.

The second trial, according to Mukandala was made in 1984 after the failure of structural decentralization. It is not the intention of this report to review in depth of all the two trials periods but it is important to mention some critical stages of the attempts to decentralize.

During the colonial period, the colonial bureaucracy acted politically but pretended to give power to the indigenous people to control their localities. This was common during the British administration and popularly known as the "indirect rule." During the last eight years of the British Administration, there was an attempt to democratize the local government system in Tanganyika. Max (1991:24) argues that the enactment of the Local Government Ordinance (Cap 333) of 1953 which replaced the Native Authority Ordinance (Cap 72) of 1926 was meant to introduce an electoral process at the local level and hence give political legitimacy to the local leaders.

The post colonial state did not abolish the inherited local government structure, instead it integrated the system into the government and its ruling party, namely the Tanganyika African National Union (TANU). The Local Authority Ordinance that had provided for 38 local authorities was revised in 1962 and repealed the sections that established native authorities. Moreover, the 1962 amendment repealed the Africans Chiefs' Ordinance of 1953. The chiefs' roles and functions were abolished completely, leaving them powerless.

Therefore, neither rural nor urban authorities were fully democratic institutions when Tanganyika received independence in 1961. Still the period 1960s experienced the process of power consolidation. Oyugi (1988:103) holds the view that since the mid of 1960s, the centralization of power gathered momentum with the decline of competitive politics in 1965. The establishment of bureaucratic institutions characterized the period after independence with little done to develop the local institutions.

The local government system was made part and parcels of TANU, repitition in 1965. For example, the Local Government Election Act No. 50 of 1965 decreed that all councilors had to be TANU members. Further reforms were introduced in 1969 after the Arusha Declaration of 1967. First, Ward Development Committees (WDCs) were established to replace the village development committees. Second, division secretaries of TANU replaced the division executive officers. These secretaries were then to act as party and government heads in their areas.