Reports of abductions, violence rile US embassy

Dar es Salaam. The US embassy in Dar es Salaam issued a statement yesterday, saying it was saddened by reports of kidnapping and violence in Tanzania.

The statement was issued two days after the opposition Chadema said its cadre, Mr Daniel John, was brutally murdered and another opposition supporter, Mr Reginald Mallya, seriously injured. Mr John was found dead on a beach in Dar es Salaam.

According to the Chadema national chairman, Mr Freeman Mbowe, Mr John and Mr Mallya were forcibly bundled into a vehicle by unknown people on February 12.

They were then brutally beaten as they were being driven away. In the event, the former died, while the later lost consciousness. Both were eventually dumped in the Coco Beach area of the city. Regaining consciousness, Mr Mallya staggered away from the beach, and was found along the way by Good Samaritans who took him to the nearest police station for follow-up action.

The US embassy said the incident in particular – and the rise in politically-related confrontations and violence in general – were raising much concern all round.

“We send our deepest condolences to (Mr John’s) family and friends. The rise in politically-related confrontations and violence is of great concern, and we call on all parties to safeguard the peace and security of the democratic processes, the country, and the Tanzanian people,” the embassy said in its statement.

“We also join Tanzanians in calling for thorough, transparent investigation, and hold all perpetrators of violence accountable in accordance with Tanzanian law.”

Before being brutally murdered, John was responsible for Chadema party affairs in the Hananasif ward of the Kinondoni district in Dar es Salaam. His murder comes at a time when a by-election campaign for the Kinondoni parliamentary constituency slated for Sunday, February 17, was approaching a climax.

“Daniel John was kidnapped on Monday in the street by men in a car,” Freeman Mbowe told a press conference on Tuesday evening.

Fortunately, Mr Mallya – who was snatched along with Mr John, but miraculously survived the attack and was left for dead by the kidnappers – was able to describe what had then happened.

The Chadema national chairman stated that the two kidnap victims were beaten, as their torturers kept asking them why they were campaigning for the Chadema candidate for the Kinondoni parliamentary seat, Mr Mwalimu.

Mr John’s body was later taken to a hospital, with deep cuts to the head, said Mbowe, who accused supporters of the ruling party Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM) of somehow being behind the attacks.

“The party in power wants to get everything by force,” Mr Mbowe charged.

Dar es Salaam Special Police Zone Commander Lazaro Mambosasa said police were investigating the incident.

On September 7, 2017, senior political opposition lawmaker Tundu Lissu was shot several times – by ‘persons unknown’ – at the entrance to his home in the nation’s capital Dodoma.

He was rushed to the Kenyan capital Nairobi where he was in intensive care before being transferred to a special hospital in Belgium, where he continues to receive specialist medical attention.