Lissugate: Why we must call in foreign investigators

There are still cries for justice against the culprits in Tundu Lissu’s assassination attempt. Mr Lissu is suffering from the pains inflicted on him by these criminals, who may have been hired to finish him.

Since this sacrilegious act was committed over a month ago, he has been bedridden in Kenya. As a result, his constituency doesn’t have a representative in Parliament. His family is, as well, indescribably suffering. It is not easy to explain what Lissu and his family are going through.

Any human being created truly human will agree with me that the family does not deserve what they are going through, more so considering that their case is not being treated with the importance it deserves by those entrusted with the duty to provide security for every Tanzanian regardless of whether he is an opponent or otherwise.

As result, the hoodlums who freakishly attacked Lissu are yet to be nabbed. Why? This is the question that has led me to thinking about the need to bring in investigators from abroad.

Tanzania won’t be the first to bring in some foreign forensic experts. Kenya did the same when its former foreign minister Robert Ouko died mysteriously in 1990. However, Kenya abandoned the investigation after a British investigator John Troon neared cornering sacred cows behind Ouko’s murder.

Before the so-called ‘unknown’ outlaws attacked him, Lissu had reported his security concerns to the Police Force, which sadly did not take any substantive measures to prevent the attack. As a citizen who is constitutionally entitled to protection from the same police, Lissu didn’t only feel vulnerable but also betrayed. His trust in police has since evaporated.

This is why he’s being treated in Kenya instead of Tanzania. He no longer trusts the institutions of his own country. This is sad and surreal. Demonstrably, Lissu’s family and his party think that to do justice for Lissu and the likes, the police must concur that it is no longer credible to do the job. When it comes to who should investigate this scandal that I would like to call Lissugate, Tanzania’s Police Force has lost the believability since it failed or refused (as his family thinks) to work on the reports Lissu made before it.

I, for one, just like Lissu, his family and Chama cha Demokrasia na Maendeleo (Chadema), would urge the police to do the right thing, namely to step aside and allow other international organs to conduct investigations in order to prove its innocence. First of all, why didn’t they take action after they were tipped off about the danger Lissu faced?

Why has it taken long time to, at least, nab even a single member of the gang of unknown crooks? One newspaper reported recently that even the CCTV cameras on the crime scene have been removed. Is this true? If it is, why are the police still mum knowing that tampering with evidence is in itself a crime?

The Parliamentary Defense and Security Committee also failed to table its report on the issue that was supposed to be out around mid-September.

Why? No one knows, except the committee and the authorities, which up to now have not done anything substantial as far as investigating the crime is concerned. Thanks to this laxity, some foreign countries such as the UK and the US offered to help in investigating this carnage. As it seems, the authorities are not only tightlipped but also have been dragging their feet. Why?

Due to the fact that the police have proven either they are unwilling or incompetent to look into the Lissugate, it is time for Tanzania to welcome foreign firms to help crack the puzzle behind this seeming criminality. There is no need to wait.

So, too, there is no need of keeping the cart before the horse. If police have proved they cannot nab unknown criminals that made attempt on Lissu’s life, why should the public keep on trusting them that they will apprehend the criminals while as time elapses evidence too fades away? Indeed, Lissugate needs to be looked into by a neutral and professional bodies such as FBI or Scotland Yard among others.

Nkwazi Mhango is a Tanzanian writer who is based in Canada