Dear Robert,

On behalf my fellow concerned Tanzanians would like to express our

heartfelt gratitude for offering us an opportunity to put our questions
forward to you.
Here are the questions:
1. There seems to be some controversy on the actual name of the
company that plans to invest in the project. According to a local
daily, The Citizen, your company is Shumake Rails, as quoted
It will be rolled out by Shumake Rails, a private company from the
US, which was expected to sign a contract with the Tanzania
Railways Authority yesterday. The firm is expected to deliver wagons
for the job later in the year.
However, several other news outlets described the name of your
company as m/s shumoja, as shown in the picture below. The
cabin on the picture bears the name Shumake Rails.

So could you kindly please clarify on this controversy?
2. Assuming your company is Shumake Rails, why does it not
have a website? With regard to M/S Shumoja, the closest thing
is your website shumoja.com, which raises even more questions.
Firstly, the website was registered on September 12, 2014, less
than a month before it was announced to be planning to invest
in Tanzania.



Secondly, on the About section of the website, the only
relevant information is
Committed to and Specializing in Delivering End-to-End
Passenger Rail Systems to the Continent and Sub-Saharan
Regions.

Here goes a brief description about the project and how its going to
economically and socially impact the locals.

Freedom, global, borderless.

One would have expected to see a list of successful project carried
out by the company in the past but there is none. Why should
Tanzanians have faith in a foreign company which has no history
of passenger rail systems?
3. On the Contact section of your website, there is neither a
physical address nor phone/fax number, just an email address.
Care to explain?


4. Your colourful LinkedIn profile neither mentions Shumake
Rails nor Shumoja Rails.





Any reason(s) for the omission/ absence?
5. It was reported in local media that you visited Tanzania as part
of a group of American investors exploring business
opportunities in the country. When did you actually come up
with the idea of investing in the urban rail transport system?
Was the idea born while you were in Tanzania or in the USA?
6. Additionally, you were quoted saying you were ready to start
the project even today. Assuming the idea was born while you
were visiting Tanzania, how viable was the possibility of the
project starting on the same day as you signed the preliminary
contract, as you claimed?
7. Finally, in the spirit of transparency, would you be willing to
convince Tanzanians that you are a serious investor by
publishing relevant documents (e.g. past experience/ project,
the Memorandum of Understanding, etc)
Again, I do thank you for your willingness to clear the air by allowing
questions from Tanzanians regarding the proposed project which
should it turn into reality would be a huge boost to the countrys
ailing economy.
Thanks you
Kind regards,
Evarist Chahali, on behalf of Concerned Tanzanians on Twitter.