The noises about “uzalendo” are starting to get annoying. We have so much competition and disagreement internally about what exactly constitutes a good Tanzanian that the danger of getting co-ordinated anytime soon seems remote.

But it is something to watch out for: Every totalitarian moment of madness has begun with the need to control and define good citizenship, usually by excising the very quality that keeps democracies healthy. Namely dissent.

And we need our dissenters. One of my very first volunteer internships was in a relatively quiet, if smart, organisation called Policy Forum. Rakesh Rajani of HakiElimu infamy was on the board of Policy Forum.

He’d just got himself and his organisation banned from performing some important activities and I was curious about this controversial character. Besides, it was the heyday of political bongo flava when groups like Wagosi wa Kaya were calling out all the service industries that were letting the citizenry down, and Profesa Jay’s Ndio Mzee said everything there is to say about our politicians.

We youth were full of hope for media freedoms and better governance.

To look at Rakesh, you wouldn’t think such a slight and bewhiskered sort would cause so much trouble, but you’d be wrong. Behind those thick glasses burned the gaze of a highly organised dissenter doing very naughty things.

HakiElimu was collecting, analysing and openly disseminating public data about the national education system. Creating a platform for parents, students and even teachers to address the issues that affected them directly.

We are developing a culture of evidence-based engagements with the government, whether it be over mineral contracts, grand corruption cases or other issues of public expenditure. In the excitement, it is hard to remember that this phenomenon isn’t even 10 years old yet.

In the end, HakiElimu was unbanned and Rakesh survived the ordeal to fight another day. When he came back at the head of the newly minted Twaweza, it seemed as though the confrontational fire that marked the HakiElimu years had been banked by experience and caution.

No such luck. Here he was again, not only generating data independently (Twaweza has its own polling infrastructure) but upping the ante by expanding on the idea of getting citizens and government to have a conversation.

I got to interview him and then- justice minister Matthias Chikawe about something called the Open Government Initiative. I want to confess right here that I had two thoughts after the interview beginning with: “Seriously? Open Government, in Tanzania?” and ending with “I wonder if that kind of dangerously fervent optimism is a congenital condition.”

Rakesh has his fair complement of detractors who are not entirely wrong in their assessments. That insistence on vegetarian fare at public events and office lunches runs counter to our cheerfully carnivorous embrace of excess.

He stubbornly built the Rajani brand: A mixture of statistically rigorous tools, effective media-based advocacy and longevity with a slight whiff of personality cult. Not to mention donor-seduction on a scale rarely seen outside of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

All of the organisations he has headed suffer from a touch of Founder’s Syndrome. Basically he marched to the tune of his own drum and managed to become annoyingly successful as a result.

When his move to the Ford Foundation was announced, I admit to a touch of tristesse. I have become accustomed to routine missives from Twaweza as an honorary part of the local press corps, and always look forward to whatever mischief the organisation has fomented through the use of statistics for my perennially cranky government.

Dissent is all well and good, but focused, dedicated, co-ordinated and effective civil society action is even more delicious. Besides, Rakesh — when he’s not being evangelical about development — can be fun in a sly, understated kind of way on his social media.

So it will be slightly quieter in Bongoland without him. While it is exciting that he’s relocating to the funders’ side of the game where I hope he’ll give them some grist for their mill, there is a very real dynamic intellectual space that will need some filling if Twaweza is to continue exploiting its data-mining brand effectively for social impact.

I was worried, due to the Founder’s Syndrome problem I hinted at, about the fate of Twaweza. Turns out I shouldn’t have been. Rakesh found a large pair of very capable hands to which he passed the baton. Now the excitement is back.

Elsie Eyakuze is an independent consultant and blogger for The Mikocheni Report, http://mikochenireport.blogspot.com. E-mail: [email protected]