A few days ago, the body of a senior Tanzanian opposition figure, Mohamed Ali Kibao, was discovered on the outskirts of Dar es Salaam, showing signs of assault and acid burns on his face, according to his political party, Chadema. Kibao had been abducted from a bus by armed men while travelling from Dar es Salaam to Tanga.
This incident could affect the reformist image of President Samia Suluhu Hassan, who has sought to reduce political repression since taking office following the death of former President John Magufuli. His body was found a day after the abduction.
While the investigations are still in the preliminary stages, the netizen jury has already decided that the security forces are guilty as charged.
This article chronicles what is already in the public gallery and reminds everyone that the buck will always stop at the president’s desk.
For reasons which are not clear, President Dr. Samia’s political 4Rs have coincided with a resurgence of political abductions, tortures and assassinations. That alone has traumatized the nation because now the big writing on the wall is, WHO IS IN CHARGE?
A few days ago, the Prime Minister reminded everyone to abide by President Dr Samia Suluhu Hassan’s 4Rs: Reconciliation, Resilience, Reform, and Rebuilding. Nobody understands why orders from national politicians go unheeded and gross misconduct is not punished, leading us to a question: who is really in charge?
If the instructions of top politicians are not taken seriously enough and they are content with wanton disobedience, one is left with two distinct scenarios: One, the authorities have two faces, one public and the other private.
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The demeanour portrayal in public is diametrically opposite to the one shared in private, in the inner rooms away from the public scrutiny and glare. Another scenario, a clandestine regime is running the show, and those we think are the leaders are not but a cover-up of other rulers.
In either of the cases depicted here, we have a reason to worry that our security is at grave risk of fatal violation. The Chadema advisor was on his bus trip heading to Tanga, his homestead. He had done this trip many times before, but this one was different.
While in the bus, two sleek SUVs bought with our tax dollars intercepted the bus, forcing it to stop before men brandishing guns disembarked and entered the bus where the Chadema hapless guy was handcuffed and whisked away.
Everybody hearing or seeing all this commotion concluded that it was politically motivated murder. In politics, impressions are everything.
There have been three changes of the guard at the headquarters of the national security offices in the hope the newcomer will arrest the situation, but with every change, things keep getting worse and worse.
This leaves us with one burning concern: Is there a correlation between changes in national security and the resurgence of political violence, or are the matters merely isolated incidences or purely coincidental?
Either way, the general public fears for their lives as a Swahili saying cautions: “Mwenzio Akinyolewa, Nawe Tia Maji Zako.”
One of the Instagram videos posted by one of the sons of the deceased raised a very important point that previously before his daddy was abducted, he was learning about abductions from the Web. Little did he know his family was next. Violence is indiscriminate.
Remember one girl called Aquilina who was returning her university tuition borrowing forms? She was on a bus when a stray bullet terminated her life. She knew nothing about the election result protest before she met her untimely end.
Violence is bad news for Tanzania, and those who preach peace, peace while practising political violence against weaker members of the society are deceiving themselves. There shall be no peace for the wicked, says the Lord God.
According to earlier reports from Chadema, the deceased was defaced by concentrated acid to blot out his identity. Whoever took all this elaborate effort to conceal the identity of the murdered knew the sensitivity of his demonic decision that may carry some personal repercussions.
Regarding the murder of Ali Kibao, few hours ago, Chadema Leaders announce tough decisions following the disappearance of their party officials:
In Kenya, the political killing of the then Foreign Affairs Minister Robert Ouko and his assassins made a similar effort to deface him with concentrated acid. The Belgians also had dissolved the remains of the first democratically elected prime minister of Zaire, now DRC, Patrice Lumumba.
Tanzania’s quest for a more democratic nation will pass through the same tests Kenyans had endured. There is no shortcut or a soft landing where the rulers of the day and those aspiring to replace them are unwilling to bury their hatchet and reconcile their differences.
Chadema, more than ACT Wazalendo, is being politically persecuted, while the latter’s rant is more evil than the former, injecting more mystery into the equation. With Bangladesh and Kenya undergoing the worst mass unrest, the authorities seem keen to deploy extra judicial violence, intimidation and domestic terror to gain the upper hand. The problem is violence never curbs violence but spark it.
Before the Sudanese civil strife, the authorities deluded themselves that blacks were a problem and hence unleashed Janjaweed to root them out of their beautiful country.
With the blacks, whom they refer to as “monkeys”, very much subdued, the authorities revisited their differences and saw the fissures between themselves were beyond resolution.
Today, Sudanese warring sides are yet to reflect that the evil they had slapped the blacks with was now demanding retributive justice in a similar vein God said to Cain after murdering his brother Abel in a jealous rage.
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In his short-lived presidential campaign in the US, John F. Kennedy Jr., responding to a question from a reporter about why the US has such a violent gun culture, attributed to: “…what we do to other countries overseas tends to boomerang back home.”
The more you indulge in political violence, the more you believe it is the only way to settle disputes. There was a young man in Mbeya who had burnt the president’s photograph, protesting against tolerance of homosexuality.
The man was arraigned in a court of law and found guilty. He was given two options: serving three years in prison or paying a colossal fine. He did not have the money and was incarcerated. While in prison, human rights activists with ties to the opposition Chadema mobilized a fund drive that collected more than what was needed to set him free.
After a few days, he was released and generously thanked his good samaritans. However, according to his father, the men in plain clothes donning balaclavas revisited their home and roughly handled his son before bundling him in a waiting window-tinted SUV. The father now believes his son was murdered.
He is grieving day and night for the loss of his precious divine reward. The old man cursed those who took away his happiness and afflicted him with perpetual miseries.
Considering all these tragic events, one common denominator is conspicuously clear: We need to revisit the qualifications of those employed in the security services.
It looks more and more like they are unqualified. They cannot reason out that abductions, torture and murder never endear the regime to her citizens. The citizens hate it even more.
Most of the problems they encounter stem from a lack of understanding. Instead of plucking people out of their serene homes or vehicles, they will research alternative solutions.
Heart-to-heart talk, not gratuitous political violence, can educate and raise awareness of the ramifications of some citizens’ decisions.
Unless types of education and training of those in security forces are given a second glance, we may end up the Sudanese way, which will be very sad to destroy the only home God has given us.
We have no other home. We have to root out criminal elements in our security forces before it is too late to contain the political violence. Violence is always not a single carriageway but a dual carriageway. So do the right thing now while the power is still in your hands.
President Dr Samia, on her X page (formerly Twitter), has directed the police to conduct a thorough investigation, including other similar acts of human rights violations, and forward a comprehensive report to her for further action.
It was very reassuring to know that at least her office is not involved in these heinous crimes against humanity. However, the contents of those investigative reports will be of huge public interest.
The police are unwilling, unable or reluctant to self-investigate themselves and those carrying similar duties.
In the case of “Afande“, who is accused of ordering five junior cadets to sexually assault a young gal for trespassing in her marital home, the accused is being treated with kid gloves and is not remanded despite facing grave felonies that are devoid of the privilege of bail. At the same time, her co-accused are secured behind bars.
These are hallmarks of creating conditions for future successful appeals over an element of bias that the convicted could claim were not treated fairly before the law.
Hence, they were deprived of the fundamental right to defend themselves. Higher courts could bite the yarn, and the convicts could be set free to the shock of the general public. Once some are above the law and others are within the law, justice cannot be delivered!
As a result, we have every reason to watch the whole saga with a bated breath.
