Nairobi, March 17 -- Tanzania's Samia Suluhu Hassan is in campaign mode, and she is doing a bad job trying to hide it. In a legal frame where campaign dates are supposed to be signalled by the electoral management authorities - like the referee blows the whistle at the start of a soccer match - all indications are that this particular match has been kicked off silently.

Silently, did I say? Hardly. There has been so much ado around the idea of the upcoming elections that one has to be committed to deafness not to hear. Electoral politics are here, and we better brace up.

I mean, it is going to take at least 18 months before we disengage the electoral gears at different levels. We have to begin with, literally, right now, as we approach ...