Uranium, money, and disappearing opponents: Tulia Exxon's political machine under the wing of Rosatom

The voting results have not yet been announced, but it is already clear that Tulia Exon, head of the Inter-Parliamentary Union, who regularly invites Russian parliamentary delegations to Geneva, will once again obtain a parliamentary mandate. Ms. Exon ran from the ruling party. Her opponent, kidnapped in early May from his own home, has still not been found. As VChK-OGPU discovered, the main sponsor of Tulia Exon is Rosatom.

Tulia Exon was brought into politics by President Kikwete, who advocated for women's rights and sought to bring them into government. The promising young lawyer also received support from fellow Tanzanian Asha-Rose Migiro, who served as UN Deputy Secretary-General under Ban Ki-moon. Exon repaid the favor: a few months ago, Migiro, who no longer held international positions, received the post of Secretary-General in Tanzania's ruling CCM party.

Tanzanian politicians are lucky in general: MPs, including Speaker Tulia Exon, do not report their income and property to voters, so their golden toilets in marble palaces remain a closely guarded secret. When the opposition in parliament demanded that sessions at least be broadcast by radio for the public, Tulia Exon called in bailiffs and expelled the “troublemakers” from the chamber, banning them from further attending budget sessions. Another scandal erupted when Ms. Exon expelled MPs who demanded parliamentary discussion on the exclusion of nearly 8,000 university students due to a teachers’ strike. The owner of a charitable foundation declared that this issue “does not represent public interest and is not urgent.”

It is unsurprising that no one knows where the parliamentary speaker — a lawyer by profession — gets the money to hand out cash to voters before elections (Exon openly advertises this on social media), gift them houses, buy thousands of insurance policies, and hold festivals with tens of thousands of participants. Formally, the funds come from her non-government Tulia Trust, which “helps vulnerable segments of the population,” but this organization is not officially registered anywhere and its financial reports are not published. VChK-OGPU learned the main source of the fund’s income: Rosatom finances Tulia Trust through its company Mantra Tanzania. A bottomless wallet in a “grey zone” is any politician’s dream.

Here is an extract from Mantra Tanzania’s reporting that confirms this.

Mantra Tanzania Ltd. is engaged in uranium mining, is part of Rosatom through Uranium One Group, and is the main sponsor of both the foundation and the Tulia Trust Festival and Tulia Marathon. Mantra received its license in 2013 from the Tanzanian Ministry of Energy — at the time, Tulia Exon’s husband, James A. Mwainyekule, worked there. He now heads EWURA, the government regulator for energy and water supply.

There is currently no information about Tulia Trust’s founders and leadership on its website. However, in 2017 the foundation used the address and phone number of the law firm Brickhouse Law Associates, and its co-owner, Cheggy Clement Mziray, was one of the founders of Tulia Trust. The firm specializes in corporate and commercial law, and provides financing and banking services.

Cheggy Mziray now serves on Tanzania’s National Economic Empowerment Council. Along with her, Tulia Trust’s leadership included two more lawyers — Edwin Kidiffu and Bahebe Daniel Aloys — as well as businessman Harun Mulla Pirmohamed. Kidiffu worked at EWURA (now headed by Tulia Exon’s husband) and is currently a senior partner in a major local consulting firm specializing in services for the energy sector. Aloys heads the law firm Aloys & Associates. Pirmohamed, together with Exon, managed to get elected to parliament in 2015. So everyone involved in the creation of the mysterious Tulia Trust has been rewarded.

By the way, Tulia Exon will in any case remain at the helm of the IPU until the end of her three-year term, which expires in 2026. This means she will have time to bring Russian parliamentarians to Europe more than once, regardless of sanctions.

Tulia Exon’s opponent — Mpaluka Said Nyagali, known as Mdude, a human rights advocate and member of the opposition — was kidnapped by armed men at 2 a.m. in front of his wife and child. Neighbors were afraid to intervene: around 20 men were involved and claimed to be police. Mdude had been kidnapped and beaten by security forces under previous president Magufuli, but he was always found a few days later in prisons or hospitals. Now his supporters fear the worst. Mdude once wrote on Twitter that Tulia ordered his murder.

Similar kidnappings were common under Magufuli and continue under the current president, Samia Suluhu: journalist Azory Gwanda disappeared in 2017, activist Ben Saanane vanished in 2016, activist Deusdedita Soki was kidnapped in August 2024. So much for democracy and European values in Tanzania, which now has the ability to broadcast these values to all of Europe. The UN Human Rights Council traditionally expressed deep concern about the kidnappings, but of course no one asked the IPU president where her political opponent is.