Uhuru Publications Limited

UHURU Publications Limited (UPL) is one of the major publishing houses in Tanzania. It was established by Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM) in early 1990s. UPL publishes a Kiswahili daily tablod UHURU and two other weekly newspapers MZALENDO and BURUDANI which is for entertainment.

The history of UHURU Publications Limited dates back to April 1962 when Tanganyika African National Union (TANU) established Mwananchi Printing and Publishing Company whose Board of Directors was filled up with ministers, other politicians and party cadres. In 1966, on recommendation from the government, TANU agreed to split its Mwananchi Printing and Publishing Company into two companies. Printing was put under te newly formed National Printing Company (Kiwanda cha Taifa cha Uchapaji –KIUT) that was placed under the National Development Corporation (NDC) while publishing was left with the reconstructed Mwananchi Publishing Company (1966) Limited. However, Mwananchi Publishing Company (1966) Ltd was later renamed Shirika la Magazeti ya Chama which in early 1990s was renamed UHURU Publications Limited. UPL aquired a web-offset press in 1995 and operated it under a subsidiary company named Modern Newspapers Printers, making UHURU the first local Kiswahili newspaper to print in colour on its own press.

Following the changes that took place in 1966, Benjamin William Mkapa, former Managing Editor of TANU who owned The Nationalist newspaper and later became the third phase President of the United Republic of Tanzania, took over as Managing Editor of the party newspapers. The first Managing Editor was Roland Mwanjisi followed by Joel Mgogo.

The Managing Editor is appointed by the Central Committee of CCM on recommendation from the Board of UPL. Currently, UPL has no Board after its members resigned in September 2016 following the visit of CCM Chairman and President of the United Republic of Tanzania, Dr. John Pombe Magufuli, to UPL and employees told him about mismanagement and maladministration prevailing in UPL.