Michaela Collord

Feb 29, 2024 | thechanzo.com | Michaela Collord

“You know, we’re at war through life,” says a long-time daladala driver, listing the many challenges informal transport workers face, from no salary and long working hours to no overtime pay and social protection or pension. Still, drivers battle on. “We’re all the children of poverty. We’ve got ahead on our own strength.” But what happens when drivers “overripen,” too exhausted by hard work to continue? “How will we get by?” In this case, the answer is through collective effort.

Feb 14, 2024 | thechanzo.com | Michaela Collord

Bodabodas drivers were back in the news last week, causing a stir on social media platform X, formerly Twitter. This followed a statement in parliament by Deputy Speaker Mussa Azzan Zungu.

Feb 8, 2024 | africasacountry.com | Daniel Paget |Michela Wrong |Michaela Collord |Alex Park

Let me start in Tanzania. As Chadema states in its constitution, it sees Tanzania’s history as one of domination. “The ‘people’ of Tanzania,” it states, “have never had a voice, power and authority over” themselves. Instead, “from the colonial era to date,” those things have been vested in “the few people,” in terms that are remarkably reminiscent of radical republican ideas of oligarchic state capture. This history of domination contains a searing critique of Tanzania today.

Nov 20, 2023 | thechanzo.com | Michaela Collord

Tanzania’s 2015 transport strikes still hold a special place in the memories of the workers involved. “The whole country stood still,” recalls one. Coaches, city buses, trucks, “none of them moved,” insists another.

Apr 28, 2023 | africasacountry.com | Patrick Gathara |Michaela Collord

In July, Silvanus Osoro, the National Assembly Majority Whip in the Kenyan Parliament, made a startling remark: unguarded, he revealed to the press that he had bribed the opposition coalition MPs to stay away from voting for the crucial Financial Bill (2023) that the Kenya Kwanza coalition government wanted passed without fail. The bill, which generated more heat than light, was first published on April 28, 2023. On June 22, its third reading, Parliament passed the bill for presidential assent.