Recalling the last moments of those killed by illicit brew

Dar es Salaam. It was at around 11am when one Mr Stanslaous Mayaya told his daughter Paulina Mayaya, 34, that he had suddenly lost his eyesight!

“I didn’t take it seriously when my father told me that he could not see anymore because he was always a person who liked jokes. So, I just ‘upped’ and went to the market to buy some foodstuffs I could prepare for lunch,” Ms Mayaya narrated.

Speaking as tears streamed down her face, she said when she returned from the market, she found her father sitting under a tree outside the family home, pleading for someone – anyone, please! – to take him by the hand and lead him to the toilet. That was when she realised that there was indeed something seriously wrong with the man, that, indeed, all was not well!

Shocked, she rushed to him, ‘steered’ him to the washroom where he helped himself. When he came out, she noticed some sort of discharge coming out his nose and mouth.

She called for help from neighbours, asking them to call in a passenger service tricycle – popular as ‘Bajaj’ in Tanzania – as he attended to her father as best she could. But the man was even unable to open his mouth to sip some milk she tried to feed him!

“When the ‘Bajaj’ arrived, we immediately lifted him into it, and rushed him to the nearest medical facility, the Kimara Health Centre’ where, upon arrival, the doctor-on-duty had him put on a drip of some sort. But, when he was on the second bottle of more ‘drip,’ father started foaming from his mouth, and his face, legs and hands started swelling,” Ms Mayaya vividly recalls!

Following these alarming body changes to her father, the doctor requested the ‘visitors’ to briefly leave the room. However, a few minutes later, he came out with the shocking information that her father had died!

“This is terrible for me; I still can’t believe that my father is dead,” Ms Mayaya stammered in deep grief. “I will only believe that he has died after seeing him lying still in a coffin!”

In a related development, Mohamed Athuman – a relative of another person who died in more-or-less similar ‘fashion’ – told The Citizen that when he heard about the death of Mr Stanslaous Mayaya, he asked his elder brother, Balewa Ramadhan, to confess if he had also partaken of the illicit brew that cost Mr Mayaya his life.

“I urged my brother to tell the truth before things get worse,” Mr Ramadhan narrated. “I suspected him to have taken the illicit booze because there was a time when used to take ‘Gongo!’ But, Balewa just replied somewhat enigmatically: “Don’t worry about me, bro. God will take control – and all will be well!”

That response did not worry the younger brother at all.

So, as he says: “I went away on my day-to-day activities. However, I received a phone call from one of my relatives at around 7pm informing me that my very same brother, Balewa, had just died… Oh, how I wish he had told me the truth earlier that day. I would have then rushed him to hospital – which could have saved his life,” Mr Ramadhan laments.

Noting that people have been drinking ‘Gongo’ for ages, he said that he nonetheless has never seen or heard of people dying from simply imbibing the stuff.

“Surely, this must mean that there was something seriously wrong with the brew they drunk this time round,” Mr Ramadhan ventured.

A member of the Kimara Stopover local government, Mr Godfrey Misana, said that at least ten people had so far been confirmed dead in his locality from drinking the same illicit brew from the same vendor on the same day – and at the same time!

He said the sad news reached them on Tuesday morning. For quite a long time now, Mr Misana said, the street government has been acting against brewers and dealers of ‘Gongo’ in the area, to little avail! This has become especially worse following the demolition of houses along the Morogoro Road reserve, creating untold havoc all round!

“As you can see, the deceased persons are victims of the ongoing demolition who find themselves having to spend the night in open spaces…,” he said.

According to him, “We banned illicit brews because they are harmful every which way,” Mr Misana stated, adding that the illegality is still going on – with brewers in some cases adding all sorts of ingredients to the concoction ostensibly to strengthen its potency,” and send consumers to Seventh Heaven on Cloud Nine!

Ingredients include baking powder, detergents (‘JIK,’ etc,), methanol spirit… to make consumers get drunk quickly.

Calling upon the Tanzania National Road Agency (TanRoads) to speed up and finalise the demolitions and clean up the place, Mr Misana also urged the government to seriously consider ways and means to support the demolition victims.