| Bomb blast victims face endless perils one year after | Send to a friend |
| Sunday, 19 February 2012 12:43 |
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The Citizen Reporter Dar es Salaam. Thursday this week marked exactly one year after bomb explosions from a military camp rocked the Dar es Salaam city suburb of Gongolamboto, in the wake of which many houses were destroyed, but promises by the government to provide shelter to the victims remain unfulfilled. For many of the families, it has been an endless wait that has made their lives miserable and unbearable. The unfulfilled promises are just a reminder of the anguish they were subjected to when unguided bombs detonated from a nearby military camp and turned their lives upside-down. A tour of the suburb brings back in a flash, the memories and pictures of that fateful night when hell broke loose. Victims continue to cling to any hope they can find as they struggle to readjust. Most of those whose houses were completely destroyed however say that only the promise to put a roof over their heads could sooth them a bit. One such family is that of Mr Joseph and Ms Yustina Mayo. Sitting pensively with her grandmother behind her badly damaged and nearly collapsing house, Ms Yustina Mayo sits amid vivid reminders of that fateful night of February 16, last year. Inside the house are charred remains of her belongings razed by flaming bombs. They have remained there as a permanent reminder of the day that the family lost all personal belongings, including academic documents, to fire. When it was publicly announced that the government would compensate the victims by building new houses for them, it was a great relief for Ms Mayo and her husband Joseph, 42, who were confident that they would bounce back to a normal life. One year down the road, however, the couple is still in limbo, unsure of whether the promise would ever materialise. Ms Mayo says delays and secrecy surrounding the government promise have tormented her family. They have made several visits to government offices for nine months, but they haven’t yielded positive results, despite numerous valuations by different teams from the same government. “It is agonising that the government has left us in the dark. Six valuations have been done on my house but nothing is forthcoming. I wish people in authority feel the same sadness and fulfill the promise,” urged Ms Mayo. Yesterday, Ilala municipal director Mr Gabriel Fuime said the delay in compensation was caused by many factors, including the difficulty in securing land for relocation of victims and verification of over 1,700 victims whose houses were either damaged or destroyed by bombs. He said the municipal council has already secured an area at Mwembesonga which has been surveyed and that Suma JKT who have been contracted to build houses for the victims would start the work any time. He said there is a group of those who would be compensated in cash to rehabilitate their damaged houses and another group of those whose houses were completely destroyed. He said, however, many of the victims had been paid compensation except those for whom verification had not been conculded. Ms Mayo is particularly distressed by loss of the couple’s academic documents. “I studied at Cambridge in the UK and was awarded a certificate in English Language and at Oxford University where I was awarded a certificate in accountancy and management. All these together with those of my husband were reduced to ashes,” she recalls sorrowfully. She says it has been one of the most painful experiences when she tries to get back the certificates as it involves huge amounts of money. A few metrer away, lived Sharifa Saidi, a mother of two, part of whose house was also hit and badly destroyed by the bomb. “Valuation has been carried out twice on this house. They have kept on telling us to wait until our turn to collect compensation money comes. “They have taken our photos and all other necessary particulars but our names have not been seen on the list of those eligible for compensation,” she complains. Ms Saidi still lives in a tent which was donated immediately after the bomb blasts. “The bomb damaged my house and razed all my belongings here. In fact there was nothing I could recover,” she says. Ms Said says the last time they went to the local government office they were shocked to be told that her name was not in the list of those to be compensated. “They told us our names were not in the list. Where has it gone while they are the ones who took all our records?” she wondered. Many families who suffered a similar fate would continue to live in distress even after the government directed that they be compensated without delay. Add this page to your favorite Social Bookmarking websites           |
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