Tanzania: 13 unanswered questions in church killings

Dar es Salaam. The Itigi church shooting victim was buried on Tuesday but the following questions remain unanswered on what transpired during the fateful day:

1. What role did the Itigi town council executive director Pius Shija Luhende play in the shootings?
2. Is Mr Luhende a worshiper at a local Seventh Day Adventist Church where the shooting occurred?
   
3. If not, what was his intention of going to the church last Saturday while armed and with armed game rangers in government vehicles?
4. Is it a new norm for the district/town council/municipal council director to go to prayer houses in search of tax evaders or to settle land disputes while armed?
   
5. The deceased’s father Petro Chambalo said the bullet that fell his son was aimed at him by Mr Luhende whom he claimed they have had a running dispute over a farm in the area. Is this true?
   
6. On Tuesday, Singida Regional Police Commander (RPC) Sweetbert Njewike told reporters that Mr Luhende did not shoot at the victim. Who is telling the truth?
   
7. If the RPC’s version of the story is the one to be trusted, why did it take him that long to reveal what actually happened?
8. The police say at a time when the rangers and some worshipers were engaged in a fracas, the director went out and closed the church doors. What was his intention? Is he the one that closes at that church?
9. Why was it difficult for the police force in Singida to cooperate with journalists who were chasing the story when the issue occurred on Saturday and Sunday?
10. Are the police really reading from a ballistic finding to collaborate which gun, that of Mr Luhende or the rangers’, actually fired the fatal shot?
11.  Some members of the congregation who were at the church maintained a bullet fired from the DED’s weapon killed their kin. Are these churchgoers lying?
12. If Luhende was not involved in the shooting, why did the Minister of State in the President’s Office (Regional Administration and Local Governments), Selemani Jafo, attend the burial of the victim and issue a Sh1 million in condolence?
13. Why would such an issue – which has several witnesses talking about who fired the bullet - take too long to send the suspects to court while the suspects in shootings in political rallies are easily identified and sued?