CCM leaders urged to engage grassroots

DAR ES SALAAM: CHAMA Cha Mapinduzi (CCM) Secretary General, Dr Asha-Rose Migiro, has urged party leaders at district and regional levels to strengthen their engagement with grassroots members in order to familiarise themselves with the party’s progress and the challenges facing citizens.

Dr Migiro said leaders can meaningfully participate in grassroots governance by attending local meetings, which are crucial for understanding party developments and assessing government performance at the local level.

She made the remarks yesterday during a joint working meeting with grassroots leaders in Temeke and Kigamboni, as part of her three-day tour of Dar es Salaam Region.

She insisted that CCM’s grassroots and branches are the lifeblood of the party, stressing that leaders must embrace a bottom-up approach rather than the opposite.

“The grassroots are the heart of our party. They carry our members and the citizens at large. They have leaders who monitor the day-to-day performance of the government in their localities,” Dr Migiro said.

She added: “Let us listen from the bottom to the top. It is through the grassroots and branches that we demonstrate our party’s strength and understand what citizens are saying.”

Dr Migiro said that, in her capacity as Secretary General and on behalf of the party secretariat, they will be pleased to receive feedback on what is happening on the ground.

Furthermore, she directed grassroots, branch and ward leaders to use their meetings to come up with sound recommendations that will form the basis for the party at national level to further consolidate its effectiveness.

She stressed the importance of party cell and branch members in building the party’s popularity by identifying citizens’ problems and presenting them to the government.

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On leveraging the diversity of CCM members across different age groups, Dr Migiro urged elders to act as a bridge in nurturing the youth, who are the future leaders, by instilling the party’s ideologies in them.

In a related development, she urged grassroots leaders to continue monitoring the ongoing implementation of the party’s 2025–2030 Election Manifesto in their respective areas.

She called on all party leaders, from grassroots, streets and villages to wards and district councils, to forge strong synergy in ensuring that government plans are implemented as outlined in the manifesto.

Earlier, the party’s Secretary for Publicity, Ideology and Training, Mr Kenani Kihongosi, urged CCM leaders and supporters to speak out about the party’s achievements in fulfilling election promises during the first 100 days of President Samia Suluhu Hassan’s administration, including the forthcoming launch of Universal Health Coverage.

He also called on party members to refrain from divisive politics, including hate speech, which he said has been fuelled by ill-intentioned individuals, mainly from the diaspora, seeking to undermine the country’s peace.

Mr Kihongosi thanked Dr Migiro for her caretaker leadership, which he said focuses on nurturing young leaders within the party.

Meanwhile, a grassroots member (Number Six) from Magogoni in Kigamboni, Mr Frank Nassoro, said in an interview with the ‘Daily News’ shortly after Dr Migiro’s address that he was impressed by her speech, noting that it emphasised closer cooperation between top party leaders and grassroots leaders.

Mr Nassoro observed that for a long time some top leaders, including Members of Parliament (MPs), have been reluctant to attend grassroots meetings after being elected.

He said the new approach would help grassroots leaders to amplify their voices and channel local challenges to top party leaders for appropriate government action.