C O N F I D E N T I A L DAR ES SALAAM 000277<br />
<br />
SIPDIS<br />
<br />
DEPT FOR INR, R.EHRENREICH<br />
<br />
E.O. 12958: DECL: 02/13/2016<br />
TAGS: PGOV PREL TZ<br />
SUBJECT: KIKWETE CORRUPTION TIDBIT<br />
<br />
<br />
Classified By: Ambassador Michael Retzer, Reason 1.5 (d)<br />
<br />
¶1. (C) President Kikwete has accepted gifts (bribes) from<br />
the owner of the Kempinski Hotel chain,s Tanzanian<br />
properties, a citizen of the United Arab Emirates.<br />
<br />
¶2. (C) In a conversation with the manager and the publicity<br />
director of Dar Es Salaam,s Kilimanjaro-Kempinski Hotel<br />
hours after accompanying A/S Frazer to her October 18, 2005<br />
meeting with then-Foreign Minister Kikwete, I commented on<br />
Kikwete's flashy attire, asking "Who dresses him?" "We do,"<br />
they responded. Initially thinking this meant Kikwete<br />
frequented a men,s shop in the hotel, I learned later in<br />
the<br />
evening from hotel publicity director Lisa Pile (protect)<br />
that the hotel owner*UAE citizen Ali Albwardy*had recently<br />
flown Kikwete to London for a subsidized shopping<br />
expedition.<br />
Among other things, on that trip Ali Albwardy bought<br />
Kikwete<br />
five Saville Row suits. He had also recently made a $1<br />
million cash contribution to the CCM (which is a legal<br />
contribution under current Tanzanian law).<br />
<br />
¶3. (C) Pile told me the Kempinski Hotel chain is greatly<br />
expanding its presence in Tanzania. She said that in<br />
December it would open "the best hotel in Zanzibar." Her<br />
prediction was a little off; the new Kempinski hotel,<br />
located<br />
on the beach on Zanzibar,s east coast, opened January 5. I<br />
attended the opening ceremony along with Zanzibari<br />
President<br />
Karume, who was asked publicly by Ali Albwardy for a site<br />
in<br />
Stone Town to build a new hotel. Later that day, Pile<br />
revealed that the Zanzibar government had already earmarked<br />
for Ali Albwardy a hotel site in Stone Town.<br />
<br />
¶4. (C) Pile also said in the October 18 conversation that<br />
Ali<br />
Abwardy was about to receive the rights to construct two<br />
new<br />
hotels on the mainland: one on the edge of Ngorongoro<br />
Crater<br />
and another on the Serengeti plain overlooking the main<br />
animal migration routes. Stringent conservation rules<br />
currently ban the construction of permanent structures<br />
inside<br />
national parks*including in the crater and on the Serengeti<br />
plain*but Pile said that in November legislation would be<br />
introduced to parliament to authorize the new hotels.<br />
(Comment: We have received no reports on new legislation,<br />
but<br />
the Dar Es Salaam Daily News on January 15 reported that<br />
the<br />
Tanzania National Parks Authority had approved construction<br />
of a five star hotel on the Serengeti plain.)<br />
<br />
¶4. (C) Later on October 18, over dinner, an Indian/South<br />
Asian man described as a business associate of Ali Albwardy<br />
briefly took Pile from the table for a conversation in<br />
Kiswahili. I am not sure what was said, but Kikwete's name<br />
came up several times and he passed her an envelope. Pile<br />
told me the envelope was stuffed with 1 million shillings<br />
( $1,000) and was to pay for a Kikwete meeting at the<br />
Kilmanjaro-Kempinski later that month. Apparently Kikwete<br />
is<br />
a regular customer, but no name ever appears on the hotel<br />
registry when a government bigshot has an "event" in one of<br />
the guest rooms.<br />
<br />
¶5. (C) Bio Note: Lisa Pile, an Australian citizen, has<br />
lived<br />
in Dar working for Kempinski Hotels since early 2004.<br />
Before<br />
that she had served in a similar capacity with the<br />
Kempinski<br />
chain in China. Her family in Australia is prominent in<br />
Australia's Liberal Party (the center-right party of Prime<br />
Minister John Howard).<br />
<br />
¶6. (C) Comment: What does it all mean? I don,t know, but<br />
my guess is that the investor Ali Albwardy has access to<br />
oil<br />
money out of the UAE. I suspect giving free clothes and<br />
the<br />
campaign donation is just the way these people do business.<br />
<br />
¶7. (C) For his part, Kikwete probably thinks having all<br />
these<br />
five star hotels around is a good idea for the country,and<br />
I<br />
agree with him. His new minister of Natural Resources and<br />
Tourism, Anthony Diallo, says he wants to double tourism,s<br />
contribution to the national economy in ten year,s time.<br />
Kikwete probably believes there is no harm in taking these<br />
&little gifts8 to do what he would have been inclined to do<br />
anyway. That said, they are what they are: bribes.