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http://www.thisday.co.tz/News/2497.htmlKiwira coal power project ownership:The Mkapa-Yona link
-A tale of two powerful families and their intertwining interests
THISDAY REPORTER
Dar es Salaam
FORMER cabinet minister Daniel Yona, who held the energy and minerals portfolio in the final years of the third phase government under Benjamin Mkapa, has been identified as a major shareholder in the $271.8m (approx. 340bn/-) Kiwira coal-fired power project along with the ex-president and his family.
Latest findings by THISDAY now indicate that both Yona and his son, Danny Yona, are also prominent shareholders of Kiwira Coal and Power Limited under the umbrella of Tanpower Resources Company Limited.
They are represented in the little-known but apparently high-powered Tanpower Resources through a private company called DEVCONSULT Limited, in which Yona senior owns 90 per cent of the shares while Yona junior holds the remaining 10 per cent.
THISDAY investigations have already established that Mr Mkapa and the former first lady, Mrs Anna Mkapa, have shares in the Kiwira company through their own private company ANBEM Limited, which was registered in 1999 with the couple as sole shareholders while they were still at State House.
Before being appointed minister for energy and minerals, Yona held a number of other key portfolios in the Mkapa government from 1995, including minister of state in the president's office (planning), and minister of finance.
Apart from the shares held by ANBEM Limited, it has also been established that Mr and Mrs Mkapa's son Nicholas Mkapa also has his own shares in the same Kiwira company through another company going by the name of Fosnik Enterprises Limited.
It is understood that Mkapa junior owns Fosnik Enterprises on a 50-50 basis with his wife, Ms Foster (Mbuna) Mkapa.
At the same time, Nicholas Mkapa's father-in-law Joseph Mbuna has also been discovered to be one of the shareholders and major figures in Kiwira Coal and Power Limited, which is based in Mbeya Region.
Mbuna, whose stake in the company is under the name of Choice Industries Limited company in which he is the majority shareholder, currently serves as chairman of the Kiwira Coal and Power Limited board of directors, whereby Nicholas Mkapa is one of the directors.
Like ANBEM Limited, DEVCONSULT Limited and Fosnik Enterprises Limited, Choice Industries Limited also falls under the umbrella of Tanpower Resources.
To put it in a nutshell, it has now been verified that Nicholas Mkapa and his father-in-law both sit on the Kiwira Coal and Power Limited board of directors, while former president Benjamin Mkapa and his wife are also among the company's listed shareholders through ANBEM Limited.
Other shareholders of the Kiwira company have been identified as Evans Mapundi and Wilfred Malekia through the Universal Technologies Limited company, which is also under the Tanpower Resources umbrella. Mapundi and Malekia also sit on the six-member Kiwira board of directors.
Tanpower Resources is now understood to own up to 85 per cent of shares in Kiwira Coal and Power Limited, with the remaining 15 per cent of shares being formally held by the government of the day.
The government is currently represented on the Kiwira company's board of directors by the Deputy Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Infrastructure Development, Omari Chambo, while the Mbeya Regional Administrative Secretary, Ms Asumpta Ndimbo, also sits on the Kiwira board.
Serious questions have begun to be raised within government circles about the multi-billion shilling contract signed between Kiwira Coal and Power Limited and the Tanzania Electric Supply Company (TANESCO) in March last year for the supply of 200 megawatts of electricity into the national power grid.
Impeccable sources privy to the contract details are now hinting at the growing possibility that the deal could eventually turn out to be another expensive trap for the national economy, along the same lines as the infamous 1995 IPTL affair.
According to THISDAY's sources, the signs of potentially disastrous discrepancies in the contract have started to emerge as delays continue to hamper the still-pending launch of the project ? more than 16 months since the signing.
The sources have already revealed that at least one 'big hand' in the Mkapa administration was responsible for exerting undue pressure on TANESCO officials to sign the contract with the Kiwira investors, and strongly hinted that the pressure came via the ministry of energy and minerals.
The controversial, 20-year power purchase agreement (PPA) which, among other things, gives the owners of Kiwira Coal and Power Limited enough discretion to calculate future power tariffs at will, was signed between the government, TANESCO and the private investor company.
Our sources now say TANESCO could end up being liable to pay Kiwira Coal and Power Limited a staggering $6m (approx. 8bn/-) each month once the firm starts delivering on the agreed 200MW of electricity.
This would bring TANESCO?s monthly obligations to three independent power producers (IPTL, Songas and Kiwira) to a figure exceeding $20m (approx. 26bn/-), which is well beyond the estimated $19.35m (around 25bn/-) per month that TANESCO currently earns from its revenues.