Boycotted body: Police now order kin to collect body of their slain relative

Dar es Salaam. Police in Temeke District on Wednesday August 22 informed relatives who abandoned the body of the late Salum Kindamba at the Muhimbili National Hospital (MNH) mortuary to collect it for burial.

The Police Commander for Temeke District, Emmanuel Lukula, said the body was available to relatives and was ready for burial since August 13 after a forensic investigation had been carried on it.

He said results of the investigation showed that the deceased engaged in criminal incidents, explaining that was why he tried to escape when he saw the law enforcers and injured himself in the process.

Narrating the incident, he said that on August 11 police were tipped that certain people at Kiwalani, Kigilagila Ward, were seen holding a sack which was suspected to contain firearms. “Police arrived at the scene and interrogated people who were there. One of them tried to escape with the sack,” he added.

He said police fired three bullets in the air so that he could stop but he did not. In an attempt to stop him by force, a bullet hit him in the leg and hip, wounding him.

“Because of the injuries he sustained, we rushed him to Temeke Hospital where he died later,” he said.

He said three out of the four suspects have since surrendered to the police. They have been identified as Moses Halamela, 30, Agape Mwakanyamale, 34, and Omari Mhando, 33.

Lukula said, however, the report on the investigation was the property of the police and the hospital where he was admitted.

In early August, this year, relatives of the deceased refused to take the body of their loved one for burial until an investigation was carried out into the circumstances that led to his death.