Babati Urban MP Gekul defended herself against torture allegations in a video interview, about a month ago.
She steadfastly denied everything asserting lack of evidence and procedural impropriety.
The original criminal case against her was dropped by the DPP prompting human rights lawyer Peter Madeleka to successfully seek the former’s permission to prosecute the case on a private level.
The case has stagnated at the Babati Magistrate courts. This discourse reviews the issues at stake as the matter drags in courtroom.
This is a case that embodies what is wrong with the office of DPP and the judiciary when it comes to criminal allegations against senior government officials.
First a star witness develops cold feet, the DPP enters “noll prosequi” then efforts to pursue private criminal persecution are frustrated.
First by the DPP to expeditiously sanction it, and in the courtroom the resident magistrate slows the whole prosecution in a manner that amounts to “justice delayed, justice denied.”
Rarely, such cases are determined on their true merits.
The basics of this matter started with a presumed victim unsuccessfully attempted to seek PF3 from the police that he could have documented his wounds allegedly inflicted by a bottle into his anus.
From earlier reports, the police had refused to grant him the PF, essentially committing obstruction of justice through suppression of vital evidence.
If that wasn’t bad enough the alleged victim was locked up for being used by bad elements to tarnish the good image of the MP. The alleged victim had accused the MP being the mastermind of his torture, humiliation and sexual assault.
After being released, he saw no way out but to report his ordeal to the press.
Once the public became aware of the situation, the MP who was also doubling as a deputy minister for justice and constitutional affairs was sacked.
That dismissal didn’t mean she was guilty but it was political accountability.
For reasons which were not clear, the alleged victim first claimed he was being intimidated then he stopped to communicate.
I do not know for certain of whether advocate Madeleka who is a leading lawyer in this private prosecution has any instructions from his client or was merely prosecuting it on larger public interest.
Without the cooperation of his client the case is dead before its arrival so possibly the accuser still seeks justice.
In this case justice comes in a form of retribution more, with its success paving way to civil compensation.
What is said to have driven the serial assault depending on whom you lend your ear, it was suspicions of political motivated poisoning of the Deputy minister.
When she heard an employee she had hired in her hotel was on the payroll of her political enemies to poison her then the boy was captured, tortured, and sodomized by a bottle inflicting him with excruciating pain.
However, the then Deputy Minister vehemently denied all of those accusations.
She said her political enemies were behind her character assassination.
They are determined to destroy her political career. Questions of whether her accuser ever worked in her hotel never surfaced.
Sadly, this article cannot see how the two paths crossed unless she collaborated with some of her accuser’s allegations.
She is quick to claim that she neither had prior contact with the DPP nor the doctor who performed the medical examination of the alleged injuries caused by torture and sodomy.
The MP asked the interviewer whether he had seen the bottle or the faeces.
The problem with this line of reasoning is that whoever was behind the sexual atrocities had an incentive to tamper with the evidence in order to escape criminal liability.
Therefore, lack of supporting evidence is insufficient to conclude rape was not committed. It is akin to a rapist defending himself claiming he did not leave behind incriminating evidence.
Or a murder suspect defends himself, has scrubbed the surfaces of blood poodles, so he is guiltless!
The most important evidence is what is in the doctor’s examination report and the eyewitness who is a prime witness.
However, if the examination was intentionally delayed due to the alleged victim being under “house arrest” for weekslong in order a natural healing to take place that amounted to evidence tampering. Public opinion on this case is not unanimous.
Similar cases involving high ranking government officials have run into likeminded obstruction of justice.
It is a playbook of those entrusted with administration of justice.
The cases against the poor are always fast tracked and decisions issued within a relatively short period.
However, once it comes to the mighty, lack of interest and procrastination rules the day. We have an R.C who was accused of sodomy and rape.
The alleged victim wrote a letter distancing herself from her ordeal. Her flip flopping was allegedly to shun political exploitation!
The matter proceeded to court but since the alleged victim had no intention of prosecuting it the case was dismissed for lacking merits.
In these two cases, politicians were left off the hook citing political persecution by their ghost enemies.
It is imperative to note the names of political enemies behind their political persecutions have not been made public, todate.
When a poor woman was caught red-handed hawking game meat, she was quickly apprehended and in a matter of days she was found guilty and sentenced to a considerable time behind bars or cough a hefty fine.
Human right activists joined forces and collected enough money to clear her fine. You will never see such efficiency when it comes to the might of society.
Their cases drag for years before being thrown out for lack of evidence or want of prosecution.
There was a case of this hapless woman repeated on a young man somewhere in Mbeya who torched president’s portrait and uttered some homophones diatribe.
He was arrested, sentenced and given an opportunity to pay a substantial fine which he did through good samaritans.
After being released unknown people came to his village recaptured him and has disappeared, ever since.
While we may never know the truth in this Gekul matter given the political stakes are very high, indeed, but what we know our prosecution and administration of justice deliberately tilt the scale in favour of the powerful and the mighty.
It is a small guy who is used to giving an example of deterrence but not the mighty who may send shock waves needed to a achieve the same.
Read more about South African land seizures attract IRE of US President Donald Trump
