Deposed Anglican prelate Mokiwa now prefers IN-HOUSE settlement
In a dramatic turn of events, former Tanzania Anglican Church Bishop,
Dar es Salaam Diocese, Dr Valentino Leonard Mokiwa, has instructed his
lawyers to withdraw his pending anti-deposition case, now before the
Kisutu Resident Magistrate’s Court in the city.
The ‘Daily News’ has reliably learnt
that M.B. Kabunga and Co. Advocates recently wrote to the Principal
Resident Magistrate in Charge of the Court, seeking a convenient date so
that they could address the presiding magistrate on the new move taken
by their client.
It is indicated in the lawyers’ letter
to the court dated February 14, 2017, that they have been informed by
their clients that “there is effort to resolve their (plaintiff and
defendants) internal conflict by way of internal meeting, namely, House
of Bishops meeting.
” However, the lawyers stated in the
letter that in order for the negotiations to be conducted without fear,
Dr Mokiwa, the plaintiff, instructed them (lawyers) to withdraw the case
in order to give room for the meeting to be held as early as possible.
The lawyers, therefore, requested
Principal Resident Magistrate Thomas Simba, who is hearing the matter,
to reschedule the hearing date of February 28, so that the case comes
for mention on February 22, this year, wherein counsel for Dr Mokiwa
shall address the court specifically on that matter.
Since the matter had been scheduled for
hearing on February 28, the presiding magistrate could not allow the
rescheduling order to accommodate that request alone.
When the parties appeared before him on
February 23, this year, the magistrate directed the hearing to commence
as scheduled. In the suit, Dr Mokiwa is suing the church’s Archbishop Dr
Jacob Chimeledya and Registered Trustees of the Anglican Church of
Tanzania, as defendants, to oppose his overthrow from his post. There
are set of grounds of objections that have been filed by defendants,
seeking dismissal of the suit.
Among the grounds include the court
lacking jurisdiction to entertain the suit since the cause of action
involves the whole Anglican Church of Tanzania and that the suit has
been instituted in express violation of the Constitution of the Church.
Dr Mokiwa, born in 1954, is a former Tanzanian Anglican Archbishop.
He was elected as Archbishop of the Anglican Church of Tanzania in 2008 and occupied that position until 2013.
Since his election in April 2002, Mokiwa
was the Bishop of the Diocese of Dar es Salaam until he was removed in
January 2017 – by Archbishop Jacob Chimeledya -- after he declined to
resign in the wake of a corruption investigation in the Diocese of Dar
es Salaam.