Remembering those who died in MV Bukoba tragedy

News of losing a loved one had really struck Mr Abraham Kanyenye that it somewhat affected his performance at Tanganyika Instant Coffee company (TANICA) in Bukoba where he worked as a marketing manager.

To make it for the burial in Mbeya, he was compelled to travel from the lake zone region to Dar es Salaam and thereafter take a bus to Mbeya.

Done with travel arrangements, Mr Kanyenye informed some of his family members in Dar es Salaam that he would be due in the city in three days time. He asked them to receive him at the then Dar es Salaam International Airport (DIA) ready to begin another journey to the southern highlands region.

His relatives got a bit concerned when Mr Kanyenye was not among the passengers disembarking from an Air Tanzania flight at DIA on the day he was expected to arrive in the city.

Curious, the relatives inquired the flight’s crew who told them what they least expected at that particular time. That they should liaise with the marine transport authority in Mwanza, as news was just coming in that a ship from Bukoba had just capsized, a few kilometres before anchoring at the Mwanza port.

They even got more worried.

After checking with the marine transport authority in the lake zone region, the relatives learnt that Mr Kanyenye’s name indeed featured on the list of those who were in the ill fated ship, but nobody knew his whereabouts.

Days and eventually weeks passed but Mr Kanyenye’s body was not among the bodies recovered from the lake. The family had to then come to terms with the reality; that Mr Kanyenye was among passengers who did not make it out of the ship.

Nineteen years on, since the double tragedy that hit the Kanyenyes, Oscar, the first born in the family of the deceased still has fond memories of his late father.

Though he was still a young boy at the time, Oscar still harbours his late father’s attributes dearly to his heart.

“I was six by then but I still have fresh fond memories of him. My father was a hardworking father who loved his family more than anything,” recalls Oscar, an employee of the United Nations Capital Development Fund (UNCDF) based in Dar es Salaam.

And whenever May 21 approaches, Oscar gets goose bumps, becoming nostalgic of the days he spent with his late parent.

“The incident really changed my life, it is one of those days that you wish to forget but that keeps haunting you. It has rubberstamped a scar in my heart…I can imagine what my father and other passengers went through at that moment,” he says.

To honour his father, Oscar spent the better part of Thursday praying for his father and other souls that perished in the tragedy, and he has occasionally been visiting Igoma, to light a candle in one of the graves that has his father’s name inscribed on it.

On Tuesday May 21, 1996, Tanzanians woke up to one of the saddest news that Mv Bukoba, an otherwise prominent vessel plying the Mwanza-Bukoba route on Lake Victoria had capsized some 30 nautical miles, off Mwanza coast, killing more than 800 passengers, in what many still consider to be a disaster on a par with that of the ‘Titanic’ in 1912.

Mr Benjamin Mkapa, who was the president when the disaster struck, declared three days of national mourning with local artists composing songs to mourn the dead.

The whole nation was literary in a somber mood, and every Tanzanian was in their own way affected by the untimely tragedy.

Leaders of different countries condoled with President Mkapa following the tragedy.

Eye witnesses and other survivors were on record describing how the ship was loaded with many more than its 433-passenger capacity should have allowed.

At eight am, with Mwanza in sight the ship began to sway. Huge jikos, dishes and kitchen equipment in the restaurant crashed to one side; the loud bang created a panic and as people rushed to the deck the vessel turned over. Ironically, the vast quantity of Bukoba banana bunches that the passengers had earlier asked the crew to throw overboard later helped survivors by giving them something to cling on to in the water.

There were not enough life vests. The vessel remained on the surface, partially buoyant. But then rescuers, who could hear trapped passengers screaming and banging, ignored the pleas of fishermen, and decided to drill a hole into the hull to rescue those trapped inside. The effect however was to release the air which had kept the hull afloat and shortly after 3 pm the vessel sank.

Other eye witnesses described how desperate passengers, who were initially barred from boarding the ship, took a short cut to Kemondo Bay to board the vessel.

On his Facebook page, Mr Godwin Shinyanga has posted the infamous image depicting the vessel lying upside down, completely submerged in the waters of Lake Victoria, captioning it with an emotional message of how he misses his mother and sister who perished in the incident.

According to Mr Shinyanga, his mother, the late Amelitha Justice Mulokozi and his sister Evelyn were returning from Bukoba where they had gone for a church service.

They were part of the 29 Imani choir group members that belonged to the Lutheran church in Mabatini Mwanza.

“They had gone to minister at Kigalama church in Kanyigo and they had to board the ship on Monday night on their way back when the incident happened. My mother was 40 by then while my sister was just six years and she was the youngest choir member,” says Mr Shinyanga.

Eight kilometres before they anchored at the port, the choir recited songs of praise and worship, thanking their God for the journey, not knowing what would befall them some minutes later.

Out of the 29 members, only eight members survived to tell the story.

“I’m told that my sister had decided to go up the deck to have some cool air, she was not with my mother when the incident happened.”

Just like Oscar, Mr Shinyanga’s family was not able to recover the bodies of their loved ones.

“Losing people that you loved so much in such a situation is just unbearable, but what makes it even worse is failing to bury them,” explains Mr Shinyanga.

As he flips through the family album, Mr Shinyanga can’t help but grieve on his mother and sister.

Come every anniversary, Mr Shinyanga spends the day indoors praying as he remembers the deceased.

“Though I have learnt to cope with the reality of death, life has never been the same again.”

His advice to the government is to step up efforts in ensuring that people working in the maritime industry exhibit utmost diligence as people’s lives are at stake.

Flaviana Matata, a renowned model in the country also lost her mother in the incident.

The model lays a wreath of flowers on her mother’s grave in Igoma at every Mv Bukoba anniversary.

Last Thursday, Flaviana had this to say while marking 19 years since losing her mother.

“It still hurts me to lose a mother but the truth is that there is nothing I can do now other than pray for her and the other souls. I appeal to the government to be extra vigilant in overseeing the marine transport sector.”

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