Imagine..! We live in a world full of hypocrisy. FUNNY, RIGHT? And it is no wonder we are reaping what we sow. Things will still get worse as violations of human rights are dismissed as part of our daily lives.It’s all about a crime.
Security force’s involvement in the sexual assault of the people they were supposed to protect is not known. Records indicate that security forces are generally shielded from accountability in many ways, so we have encouraged them to continue fighting against our basic rights.
Recently, a young woman was raped by five Tanzania People’s Defence Force (JWTZ) cadets who claimed to be sent and obeying orders from their superior (afande). The cadets who joined the army last year had the guts to record a video, anticipating no consequences!
Only in Tanzania, where military officers commit rape and sodomy against a teen girl, record the implicating evidence and post it on Social media. Now everybody knows what they have done, expecting no lawful ramifications. That video was their trophy of all trophies. There are traces of a lack of accountability against our security forces that had endured decades of our time, and now everybody is shocked at how immoral the armies have become.
Under normal circumstances, as citizens, we expect our men and women in uniform to have much to do defending our borders and sniffing out the bad guys. Still, these sexual allegations have reminded all and sundry that maybe we are expecting too much from them. Maybe they do not have many consuming challenges that rape and sodomy are extracurricular activities.
When Al Qaeda committed a twin terrorist attack on Dar es Salaam and Nairobi US Embassies, some wondered how foreigners would enter our countries, hired local mercenaries and tankers, and modified them to fill them with bombs. At the same time, our security forces kept in the dark until it was too late. Now we know they care less about saving to keep their jobs.
When you get time, don’t hesitate to read: In High-Profile Rape Cases, Public Opinion Divides Amidst Power Imbalances and Hidden Truths
When the MV Victoria ship sank, we later came to learn from international news that one of the dead was Al Qaeda’s top commander for the African continent. We were told he was in Tanzania to scale and case the following terrorist targets in Tanzania and Uganda. Our security forces were not up to the task of preventing deadly terrorists from entering our country.
The Al Qaeda operative did not go through unofficial channels but had a passport and lawful visa, so he entered the country legally. So were Al Qaeda terrorists who blew up Dar-es-Salaam and Nairobi American Embassies. Our security forces do not seem to take their jobs seriously enough, endangering our national security.
Part of the problem facing our security forces is their propensity to stay in urban areas, compounding social tensions and not settling in the borders where the real security issues are. Our shallow investment in top-notch surveillance gadgets is behind our leaking borders, where both domestic and international terrorists feel safe exploring targets and striking them.
Many ask themselves how drug cartels find Tanzania their heaven. How come drug couriers from Tanzania pass our porous borders without detection, only to be apprehended in foreign lands? What is wrong with us? A web of criminal rung has contaminated the military, too, relaxing the rules to permit our country to be a drug-peddling nation.
Conflicts between security forces and the people are growing. Land demarcations and petty issues taken out of context are just a drop in the ocean. In the last elections, the relationship between the security forces and us was at its worst level. In Zanzibar, junior military cadets captured a teen boy, group sodomized him and posted it on Social media.
Also, read The Unfinished Agendas After 60: Whither Tanzania?
No action was taken against them, emboldening the current turn of events. These five cadets who raped this teen girl recorded the video and posted it online; past heinous crime (s) committed by the military were swept under the carpet. We are what we have taught ourselves to be.
The abductions, beatings and extrajudicial killings of civilians for whatever reason have gone too long without retribution. The overall effect is that we have condoned the security forces from going into any home and abducting innocent people, some of who disappear without a trace.
We are a nation where a journalist is taken from home and promised to be involved in an official duty. He vanishes without a trace, and those who abducted him are known, but nobody sees it as a major assault on our faith in the government.
There is a woman who is weeping about his son who was taken by the security forces, and the reason given is that he had not paid the Tanesco bill! So, the police were investigating it. The car that took him had no plate numbers, and the whereabouts of this young man remain a mystery.
The mother says she cannot sleep as the disappearance of his beloved son has traumatized her. What does the police have to do with the Tanesco bills? We cannot have security forces that behave like criminal gangs without a civil war eruption. As the scripture instructs, the sword shall consume those who live by the sword.
Some time ago, a relative of a member of the security forces murdered his wife by striking her repeatedly with a blunt object he had bought for that purpose. The police delayed arresting him, and the whereabouts of his murder case remain a closely guarded secret.
Elsewhere, security forces whipped a conductor of a bus to death for dropping a daughter of one of their own who was going to school but had refused to pay a bus fare. Those involved have been left to their devices as if they had a licence to murder those who cross them.
The mom of the raped teen gal recounting the plight of her daughter mentioned that her daddy was bed-stricken and she was grappling with heart issues. Their daughter was the shining light. Now, she has been robbed of her dignity and will carry the stigma for the rest of her days.
What is unacceptable is to come to the grips that a military supervisor was the one who ordered her juniors to carry out her evil orders. But we know fully well evil cannot be overcome by evil. This was a crime of passion deploying revenge on a rival in a broken marital home.
Sudan’s civil war can be traced to how the security forces committed genocide in Darfur. The security forces were shielded from accountability and behaved as above the law. The problem was they were being deceived because nobody is above the law. Whatever we do to others becomes our prayer, and God will repay us according to our deeds.
Sudan is now paying for wanton violations of the rights of the weakest members of the society. God promised that the weak would always live with us so that He may test us on how much we love him.
In the horrors of a teen gal dilated here, it began as sexual infidelity turned into rape and sodomy, and the lives of many involved and some who knew nothing have been altered forever. Had we been sensitive to the lack of accountability of the security forces, this heinous crime would not have been committed.
We see lawlessness rule our security forces, and nobody should seek an excuse for this being an “isolated incident.” History chronicles the serialisation of abuses against human rights that happen repeatedly without any attempt at deterrence. In the beginning, the citizens will be on the receiving end, but later, the tables will turn, and the security forces will be the ones fearing for their dear lives.
The opinions of the Author of this article are very good and relevant based on things our country passing through recently. it require to be head by the people in power, pro-active measures should be taken to make sure our defense forces always ready to recognize and to combat all forms crimes.
Recently, Our defense forces demonstrated high capacity in identifying, all sign of peace breaking actions related to political parties issues and they successfully avoided the anticipated harm which could happen. I appreciate their commitments, but I encourage them to re evaluate themselves, there are some of their colleagues who are not behaving right! They harm their image and image of our beautiful country Tanzania. Their actions devalue the respect of our defense force and image of our country internationally
Rise of different forms of crime and human right violation in our country is significant. GBV, People with Albinism are harmed, and some people in different places in the country are reported lost, then it happen “Afande” issues comes around. This disturb the peace peoples lost hope on defense force being the institution to protect the right of the citizens.