Kin: Mkapa died of malaria, not corona

Former Tanzanian president Benjamin Mkapa (pictured) was suffering from malaria and died of a heart attack, his family said Sunday, scotching rumours that he succumbed to coronavirus.

“Mkapa was found with malaria and he was admitted for treatment since Wednesday,” family member William Erio revealed during a funeral mass broadcast on State television TBC1.

Mkapa, who ruled the East African country for two terms from 1995 to 2005, died early Friday aged 81 in a Dar es Salaam hospital, but the government did not reveal cause of the death.

“He was feeling better on Thursday and I was with him until 8pm that day,” Erio said.

“After watching the evening news bulletin, he died of cardiac arrest,” Erio added, saying he wished to dispel rumours spreading on social media that Mkapa had contracted the coronavirus.

President John Magufuli attended the funeral mass along with his vice president and prime minister at the national stadium. 

The opposition has accused Magufuli’s government of lack of transparency regarding its handling of a pandemic, which the president said last Monday was no longer present in the country as he urged tourists to return.

Tanzania ceased publishing official statistics on the virus on April 29 and, unlike its neighbours, has taken no specific measures designed to halt its spread.

Officially, Tanzania has logged a mere 509 Covid-19 cases to date, whereas neighbours such as Kenya and DR Congo have respectively registered more than 16,000 and more than 8,000.

Mkapa, who was the country’s third president after independence from Britain in 1962, will be buried in his home village in the southeastern region of Mtwra on Wednesday.