Tanzania! How did we get here?

Mobhare Matinyi, Washington DC

Tanzania, a country so badly in need of good publicity, promotion, marketing, advertising and everything of that nature, was again this week in the limelight around the world for a very wrong reason: the brutal murder of a journalist in the line of duty by unruly elements in the police force. 

By Tuesday, the world had already been bombarded by the unbelievable news of what had befallen Tanzanian television journalist Daudi Mwangosi on Sunday, September 2. Some of the world-known non-governmental institutions such as the Media Institute for Southern Africa (MISA), Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), the World Association of Press Councils (WAPS) and Article 19, were busy issuing official statements that will remain on record forever.

The international press including Reuters, and the Associated Press; American television networks such as ABC and MSNBC; global radios including the Voice of America, National Public Radio, BBC, Deutsche Welle, and Radio Netherlands; papers like The Washington Post, Miami Herald, The Guardian of London; websites like the Huffington Post; and a host of African and local press, informed world citizens of how the island of peace is slowly becoming the capital of violence, barely a week after the Morogoro incident that took one life.

What is so shocking is the manner in which the television journalist died moments after being surrounded by out of control anti-riot police, beaten up before one officer aimed and fired a tear gas canister right on his abdomen shredding it apart. Luckily, Mwangosi’s final moments were perfectly captured by courageous photojournalists and later corroborated by several eye witnesses who spoke boldly, consistently, and precisely.

Probably, the poorly-trained police didn’t know how dangerous that tear gas canister was, but his instructors should have told him that in December 2011, a Palestinian activist died of wounds he sustained after being shot in the face by an Israeli soldier from a close range of about 20 meters with a tear gas gun. How could Mwangosi have survived at a close range of less than a meter?

In the highly politicized environment that Tanzania is currently suffering from it is convenient to play a blame and counter-blame game endlessly, but Tanzanians are dying in both political activities as were the cases in Arusha and Morogoro and non-political activities as witnessed in Mara and Ruvuma. Seriously, the country’s credibility is wanting and the public trust in police is melting away.

Speaking of the manner in which Mwangosi died, any argument is useless now as not a single police officer can explain why an innocent journalist who was not part to any political activity but simply on duty, had to be killed in that way. Even if he had questioned police harassment against another journalist, he still didn’t deserve to die.

As Elton John once philosophized, certainly, Mwangosi’s life was like a “candle in the wind”, and surely, “the truth brings us to tears”. Mwangosi, a husband to Itika and a father of four did not deserve anything like this, and that is why Minister Mark Mwandosya shed tears saying that the deceased was like his son and he will miss him.

For some reasons our police are increasingly becoming notorious for violence as we have seen all over the country in recent years. Slowly, Tanzania is changing, and this trend shouldn’t be tolerated at all. Abd al-Rahman ibn Muhammad ibn Khaldun, a 14th century Arab political theorist, described a government as “an institution that acts to prevent injustice” and clearly that is what CCM’s government ought to do now.

Dr Martin Luther King Junior added in the 1960s: “Without justice there can be no peace.” Let us be clear, police have no right to kill at will and that is why those who killed former chief of intelligence, Lieutenant General Imran Kombe in 1996 were jailed although numerous other police officers got away with other murder cases through legal gymnastics and even impunity.

It’s time we all respect what William Shakespeare said in the Macbeth act: “Tomorrow, tomorrow, and tomorrow.” Surely, we cannot build a future in a country where a policeman can simply rip apart someone’s stomach and left free to roam around. Tanzanians are now waiting to see the fulfillment of the promise of the Home Affairs Minister Dr Emmanuel Nchimbi that justice will be done in this incident.

Tanzanians are dying from police brutality, whether it is politics-related or not, and this heinous attitude should stop now. Police had no right to kill that journalist or anybody else with a tear gas canister at such a close range.

This unfortunate turn of events in the last few years brings us to the famous question asked by American artist, Joseph Cartagena, aka Fat Joe, in his lyrics: How did we get here? Yes, Tanzanians, how did we get here? God bless our country and its people!