On Monday, President Samia Suluhu Hassan appointed Ali Idi Siwa as the new head of Tanzania's intelligence agency, replacing Saidi Hussein Massoro, who held the post for less than eight months.
In a statement released by the Directorate of Presidential Communications, the presidency announced that Siwa was sworn in as the new Director General of TISS at a brief State House ceremony in Dar es Salaam on August 28. However, it didn't elaborate on the reason for the abrupt change.
Massoro, who served as deputy to his predecessor Diwani Athuman for several years, was appointed head of TISS on January 3 this year. He will now have the status of an ambassador and could be in line for a posting to a diplomatic mission abroad.
Siwa, a Tanzanian civil service veteran, served as the country's High Commissioner to Rwanda from 2015 to 2018. He was subsequently appointed Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the National Social Security Fund (NSSF), a position the official held until his recent appointment.
Previously, Siwa served as a senior foreign affairs officer in Tanzania's missions to the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Russia and Germany.
In May, the country's parliament approved several changes to the structure of the spy agency, making it accountable to the president. The bill introduced a section specifying the qualifications of a person who could be appointed as the head of the TISS. It was noted that the introduction of certain qualifications was aimed at allowing the authorities to recruit a capable and professional person for the post.
In addition, the new amendment made the intelligence chief an advisor to the president on issues directly related to national security.
The government also proposed to prevent a person serving as head of the intelligence agency from being appointed to a government position. However, the proposal was rejected by the Parliamentary Committee on Governance, Constitution and Legal Affairs, which stressed that the subsection contradicted the Constitution.