By Bernard James
The Citizen Reporter
Dar es Salaam. Works deputy minister Harrison Mwakyembe yesterday reacted angrily to the Police Force’s assertion that his illness was not caused by poisoning.He described the force as “unprofessional”, adding that it had lost credibility.

Mr Mwakyembe’s scathing attack on the force comes a day after the Director of Criminal Investigations, Mr Robert Manumba, told a press conference that there was no evidence to show that the minister was poisoned.
This was contrary to allegations by the minister for East African Cooperation, Mr Samuel Sitta, who has repeatedly said the Kyela MP had been poisoned.

At a press conference in Dar es Salaam on Friday, Mr Manumba said an exhaustive investigation by the police established that Mr Mwakyembe’s illness had nothing to do with poison.

He went further to say that the outcome of their investigations would be forwarded to the Director of Public Prosecutions for further action. But, in a statement circulated to the media yesterday, Dr Mwakyembe said he was saddened by the police interference in his treatment and the denial that he was not poisoned did not have any backing from his doctors.

He said what Mr Manumba told journalists was quite different from facts contained in his hospital file in India which stated clearly that there was something in his bone marrow which caused the situation. He said this was something which his doctors were struggling to identify and control.

“The police force has jumped into an issue which it has for at least a year now never had any interest to understand and investigate except playing with it through newspapers,” he said.

Mr Mwakyembe talked about a letter he wrote to the IGP a year ago, telling him of a plot to terminate his life.  However, he claimed that even after he provided the police with every support, they showed no interest in investigating the allegations.
The deputy minister alleged that a few days after he submitted the letter a team of police investigators was sent to his office.

It was led by one Assistant Commissioner of Police Mkumbo, whom he said a week had not even passed since the officer was accused of receiving a bribe to frame up the son of the IPP chairman, Mr Reginald Mengi, with a drug case.
“On that basis a corruption officer was brought to interrogate me. I immediately realised that the whole exercise was a hoax,” said Mr Mwakyembe.

He further alleged that a few weeks after the letter was handed to the IGP and ACP Mkumbo to start work, the police force congratulated and rewarded some of its officers whom he had already accused of colluding with criminals.
 “That was a clear message that they have ignored my allegations,” he said.

“Now where does this new interest by the police to know whether or not I was poisoned come from,”? Dr Mwakyembe asked as he accused the police of rushing to give a statement without investigations on him, inquiring from his aides or even talking to doctors treating him.

“Is it not the same police officers who were irked by calls by minister Sitta for investigating the issue thoroughly?” he further wondered.

Dr Mwakyembe said in his letter to the IGP that there were contract killers directed to kill him by poison, information which he said the police have been sitting on for a year for reasons better known to themselves.

“I would like to insist from the beginning that the position of the police force annoyed me very much considering the situation I was going through. With all these the credibility of the police force leadership is questionable,” he added.

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