PRESIDENT Jakaya Kikwete has urged Tanzanians in the Diaspora to invest in the motherland instead of concentrating on negative politics going on in the country.
He told them that they had the main responsibility of contributing towards their nation’s development by supporting their relatives, their compatriots and the nation at large instead of concentrating on blogs.
Mr Kikwete made the remarks here on Sunday night
when speaking to Tanzanians living in Kenya during his first day of his three-day state visit to Kenya at the invitation of President Uhuru Kenyatta.
He told his countrymen and women here to devote their time to thinking about development issues instead of spending a lot of time in talking negative politics, calling on them to leave politics to politicians.
The president, however, told them that he was not stopping them from airing their views, but they had first to think what was best for their country.
According to him, contributions by Tanzanians in the Diaspora are most important, urging them to build houses and help their relatives, instead of spending extravagantly, including owning posh cars.
Tanzanians living in Kenya commended President Kikwete “for his competent leadership’’ during his 10- year tenure, which expires constitutionally in a few days to come. They said that under his leadership, Tanzania had made great strides on various development sectors, politically, economically and socially.
Meanwhile, President Uhuru Kenyatta yesterday accorded Tanzanian leader, Mr Kikwete full honours when he formally received him at State House in Nairobi. President Kikwete was given a 21- gun salute as the Kenya Army Band played the national anthems of Tanzania and Kenya.
Thereafter, the Tanzanian president inspected a guard of honour mounted by a section of the Kenya Army before holding bilateral talks with his host.
Mr Kikwete arrived in Kenya on Sunday when the two presidents presided over the launch of the construction of the Taveta-Mwatate Road.
The two East African leaders said the 90-kilometre road would be a crucial link as it would promote the development objectives of Kenya and Tanzania.