The Battle of Perceptions Around Tanzania’s Bagamoyo Port Expansion

This week’s surprise announcement by Tanzanian President Samia Suluhu Hassan’s that she is resuscitating negotiations with China and other stakeholders about a multibillion-dollar expansion of the Port of Bagamoyo is generating a lot of excitement and a desire among some (most likely in the government) to set the record straight on the project.

An unusual article was published today in The Citizen newspaper (a privately-run media outlet owned by Kenya’s Nation Media Group) that lacked an author byline and featured largely anonymous sources in the apparent attempt to challenge longstanding misperceptions about the Bagamoyo port deal with China Merchant Holdings International: