The High Court of Tanzania on Monday, December 15, 2025, delivered a decisive verdict, ruling that the evidence proved the case beyond reasonable doubt.
Kigoma. Three immigration officers, Fredrick Kyomo, Joachim Trathizius, and Mabruki Hatibu, have been sentenced to death for the murder of Enos Elias, a resident of Kakonko District in Kigoma Region, whom they suspected was not a Tanzanian citizen.
The verdict was delivered on Monday, December 15, 2025, by the High Court of Tanzania’s judge, Augustine Rwizile, who ruled that the evidence before the court proved beyond a reasonable doubt that no other person or group was involved in the killing apart from the three officers.
“Based on the evidence showing how they arrested him, assaulted him, and later took him to an unknown location where he was subsequently found dead, these acts are sufficient to establish that the accused committed the offence with malice aforethought,” Judge Rwizile said.
Mr Elias was arrested by the officers at the Kihomoka checkpoint in Kakonko District on October 27, 2023, and taken to immigration offices for questioning.
While in custody, he contacted his relatives and asked them to bring his National Identification Authority (Nida) card.
However, when the relatives followed up at the offices, they were informed that Mr Elias had been released on October 28, 2023.
He could not be traced thereafter, and his phone was unreachable until his body was discovered on October 29, 2023, and buried without the presence of family members.
How was Mr Elias identified?
On November 9, 2023, the Kigoma Regional Criminal Officer (RCO) sent an officer to Kakonko to investigate Mr Elias’s disappearance, as he had last been seen in the custody of immigration officers on suspicion of being an illegal immigrant.
According to prosecution witnesses, Mr Elias was a Tanzanian national born in Kakonko District. His siblings, Anjelina, Advera, Levina, and Plaxeda, testified in court.
On October 27, 2023, while travelling by public transport within Kigoma Region, Mr Elias was arrested at the Kihomoka checkpoint after officers suspected that he was in the country illegally, believing he was not a Tanzanian citizen.
The defendants took him to their office for questioning, where Mr Elias requested his release, insisting that he was a Tanzanian.
The officers declined, saying he did not have his NIDA card and that he would need to present a parent’s identification document. He was detained until October 28, 2023.
Mr Elias contacted relatives, including Anjelina Elias, the fifth prosecution witness, and Leopard Salvatory, asking them to bring his mother’s Nida card to secure his release.
Despite claims by immigration officers that Mr Elias had been released on October 28, 2023, relatives were unable to reach him, and he was reported missing.
In Chilambo Village, Kakonko District, near the Kachikiri and Kichacha hills along a route leading to Burundi, the village chairman, Mr Pius Paulo, the fifth witness, together with Yolam Kasase and Marco Joseph, discovered an abandoned body on October 29, 2023, while returning from a patrol.
They alerted police, and later that evening, Corporal Hamis, the second witness, and Sharifu Husein, a medical practitioner and the first witness, arrived at the scene.
After examining the body and confirming death, village leaders decided to bury it due to the absence of identifying relatives.
Exhumation and identification
On November 9, 2023, ASP Josephat Pombe, the seventh witness, was sent by the RCO’s office to assist in investigations.
The following day, he came across records of a body that had been buried in Chilambo Village.
After obtaining a court order, the body was exhumed with the assistance of Mr Elias’s relatives, including his mother, and village leaders who had overseen the burial.
Mr Elias’s mother identified the body as that of her son, after which the family was allowed to rebury him properly.
Investigation unfolds
Following Mr Elias’s disappearance, the three officers were arrested and charged with murder. They denied the charges but were later found guilty.
Several prosecution witnesses, including relatives of the deceased, testified on how they learnt of Mr Elias’s arrest, followed up on his whereabouts, and how one of them attempted to trace his movements before fleeing.
Witnesses told the court that Mr Elias had called them requesting his mother’s Nida card.
When they took the document to the immigration office, they were informed that he had already been released.
Judge Rwizile said the evidence clearly established that Mr Elias had been in immigration custody before his disappearance and death.
ASP Pombe testified that entries relating to Mr Elias’s arrest had been deleted from official records, with the court concluding that the deletions were made after his body was discovered.
A village guard, the sixth witness, gave crucial testimony, stating that Mr Elias was arrested on October 27, 2023, and detained at the office.
When the Nida card was not produced promptly, officers allegedly began beating him with sticks.
The guard testified that Kyomo first assaulted Mr Elias with a stick, after which another officer, Mr Kapifu, questioned him about the Nida card and then beat him with a metal rod kept in the office.
At around 11 pm, Mr Elias was reportedly put into a vehicle and driven to an unknown location.
About 30 minutes later, only Mr Hatibu returned, and it later emerged that Mr Elias had been killed.
Judge’s ruling
In his judgment, Judge Rwizile said the sixth witness’s testimony showed that Mr Elias was beaten with a stick and a metal rod, with the first defendant initiating the assault before the others joined in.
Relatives who went to follow up on Mr Elias were told that his name did not appear in the records.
Yet, when the fifth witness spoke to him at the office, Mr Elias appeared weak and complained that he had not eaten since his arrest.
The court heard that Mr Elias was beaten until he weakened, then taken away in a vehicle to an unknown destination.
The judge noted that although no witness directly saw the defendants inflict the fatal blow, the circumstantial evidence was compelling.
Medical evidence showed bruises on various parts of the body, with death resulting from head injuries caused by blunt force trauma.
“In view of all the evidence, the court is satisfied that the accused persons are responsible for the death of the deceased,” concluded Judge Rwizile.
