“We shall only go to Dar-es-Salaam to receive international guests and engage in activities that must be done in Dar-es-Salaam.”

Those are the words with which Tanzanian President Samia Suluhu stamped the authority at the weekend decision to move the country’s capital from Dar es Salaam to Dodoma.

She spoke at the official opening of the new State House, a gleaming white building that sits on 8,473 acres that has taken 50 years to build. It is a dream that outlived Mwalimu Julius Nyerere — the founding father of the Tanzanian nation — who conceptualised it, and John Pombe Magufuli, who speeded up the construction work when he became President. 

In 1973, President Nyerere made the decision to move the capital from Dar to Dodoma, “to bring government closer to the people”, following a referendum in which all areas except the Coast voted to move the capital.

Dodoma is 678Km from Nairobi, and is centrally located in Tanzania. The Parliament is already in Dodoma, as are all the ministries.

President Magufuli laid the foundation stone in May of 2020 and the Tanzanian People’s Defence forces commenced construction. What they came up with was an imposing building, all white with Swahili inspired windows, and castle like edges that look like chess pieces. It mirrors the Dar-es-Salaam State House, which was built in 1893 by the German colonisers, but which was bombed in 1910 before it was rebuilt in 1920 by the British.

At the inauguration ceremony, President Suluhu had a special mention for Mwalimu Nyerere and Magufuli, awarding them post-humous State recognition for Mwalimu’s conception and Magufuli’s actualisation.

“We are here to stay,” she said of the new capital.

The move to Dodoma though, has been a hard sell to countries with established missions in Dar. So far only Germany, China and France have opened offices in Dodoma. Kenya in the recent years had just bought and built a residence and offices in Dar and it remains to be seen if it will sell them or retain them as a consulate.