Kampala Accord signatory and Tanzania Constitutional & Legal Affairs Minister dies at 74

Minister of Constitutional and Legal Affairs, Augustine Mahiga, has passed on. (AGENCIES PHOTO)

Dodoma – Tanzania President Magufuli has, on May 1, confirmed the passing of Minister of Constitutional and Legal Affairs, Augustine Mahiga

The Minister reportedly died whilst being rushed to a medical facility from his Dodoma home.

Details of what caused the sudden demise of the former United Nations special envoy for Somalia are still scanty.

President Magufuli eulogized the Minister as dedicated hard worker who has served diligently in several top positions in and out of the country.

Thousands of people across the world sent in their condolences shortly after the new broke including the United Nations, Somalia and the German Embassy in Tanzania.

Hon. Mahiga served as Tanzania’s Foreign Affairs Minister between 2015 and 2019 before his appointment at Constitutional and Legal Affairs ministry in 2019.

VIDEO: Augustine Mahiga (SADC) on Peace and Security in Africa – Media Stakeout – March 31, 2017

United Nations – Informal comments to the media by H.E. Mr. Augustine Mahiga, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Tanzania, on behalf of the Southern African Development Community (SADC), on the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUSCO) and other topics concerning peace and security in Africa, following Security Council meetings on the situation concerning the Democratic Republic of the Congo as well as peace and security in Africa.

The Diplomat previously served as the Permanent Representative of Tanzania to the United Nations from 2003 to 2010 and as the UN Special Representative and Head of the United Nations Political Office for Somalia from 2010 to 2013.

Born in 1945, Hon. Mahiga earned a Bachelor of Arts (Education) at the University of East Africa in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania in 1971 and in the same year, Mahiga completed a Masters of Arts at the University of Toronto.

He also received a PhD in International Relations in 1975 from the same institution.

The former UN Special envoy Mahiga meets President Museveni ahead of the sign of Kampala Accord. (PPU PHOTO)

On June 2, 2011, the Late Mahiga, along with the Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni, oversaw a signed agreement in Kampala between Somalia’s incumbent President Sharif Sheikh Ahmed and the Speaker of Parliament Sharif Hassan Sheikh Aden.

After months of political infighting over whether to hold presidential elections in August 2011, the two politicians agreed to postpone the vote for a new President and parliamentary Speaker for one year in exchange for the resignation of the Premier within a period of thirty days.

The signed Kampala Accord would also see the well-regarded technocratic Cabinet that Prime Minister of Somalia Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed had assembled in November 2010 re-composed to make way for a new government.

Brian Musaasizi | Editor