Unguja — The 2021 Uhuru Torch race was flagged off on Monday, May 17, 2021 in South Unguja Region in Zanzibar, where the President of Tanzania, Ms Samia Suluhu Hassan, was born. The race will end later this year in Chato District, the birthplace of the late President John Magufuli.
“This year’s Uhuru Torch Race will be special. It will start at the place where President Samia Suluhu Hassan was born, and will conclude on October 14, 2021 in the district where the late President John Magufuli was born,” the Minister of State in the Prime Minister’s Office (Policy, Parliamentary Affairs, Labour, Youth, Employment and Persons with Disabilities), Ms Jenista Mhagama, said in a statement.
The Zanzibar acting Minister of Information, Youth and Sports, Ms Leila Mohamed Mosa, said the Uhuru Torch would be raced in 150 districts, during which various development projects would be launched. The slogan of this year’s race is “Tehama ni Msingi wa Taifa Endelevu; Itumike kwa Usahihi (Information and Communications Technology is the Basis of a Sustainable Nation; It should be Used Appropriately)”.
South Unguja Regional Commissioner Rashid Adid Rashid said six projects worth more than Sh600 million would be launched during the Torch’s time in the region.
Flagging off the race, Zanzibar Second Vice President Hemed Suleiman Abdulla, who represented President Hussein Mwinyi, said both the Union and Zanzibar governments would continue to safeguard philosophies associated with the nation’s founding fathers, Mwalimu Julius Nyerere and Sheikh Abeid Amani Karume, including the objective of establishing the Torch Race, which was to foster unity among Tanzanians.