Father Samson belonged to the African Missionary Society (White Fathers) who worked with the Catholic Diocese of Mbeya
Mbeya. It is extreme brutality that is what you might say after Father Michael Samson's body was found on the Meta River wrapped in a blanket with the priest’s body cut into pieces.
Father Samson belonged to the African Missionary Society (White Fathers) who worked with the Catholic Diocese of Mbeya.
Earlier in the day, the diocesan archbishop, Gervas Nyaisonga, reported the body of the priest, who had been missing from his parish since June 10, and was found dead on Saturday at 6:30 pm.
The incident comes just months after Father Francis Kangwa, a Zambian citizen of the White Fathers organization who was working with the Catholic Diocese of Dar es Salaam, St. John Paul II Parish, Mbezi Mshikamano, was found dead in a water tank at the house where he was living.
Recounting the incident yesterday, a witness who identified himself as Simon Amos claimed that an unidentified child identified the body of the priest who was allegedly killed by unknown individuals, as he was passing through the Meta River area.
Amos, who is also a bodaboda taxi rider, said yesterday at 9.30am the boy was passing by on the side of the Meta River and when he saw the body, he ran to call bodaboda riders who had parked their motorcycles near the area.
“When we arrived we saw a hand with a wrist watch in the water and we approached it and saw a body wrapped in a blanket, we searched for government officials including the Sabasaba Street Chairman of Mbalizi Ward and the Police who arrived but when they unwrapped the blanket, they found that its limbs had been severed,”Amos told The Citizen and added;
"This is a brutal killings, the deceased was slaughtered like a chicken. The head, body, legs and neck have been cut into pieces. ”
Local Chairman speaks
Sabasaba Street Chairperson Ally Mbika acknowledged the incident, while condemning the killings, which he too described as "brutal".
“The body was wrapped in a blanket and what was visible was a hand, but the limbs cut off. The head, neck, legs and torso were separated, ”said Mbika.
Staff speak out
Asteria Lunguya, one of the staff said Father Samson had a schedule to practice walking every evening around the center.
"Even the day he disappeared, he left here to go to the gym, and he never told us if he had a problem with someone or was ill, his health was stable," said Lunguya.
She said the news of the priest's death was first heard on Sunday, at 7pm. "We could not believe it, we were encouraging ourselves, it may not be true and we were waiting for official information. To us it is a blow, we have lost a good leader, ”he said.
Speaking to Mwananchi, the guard at the center, Theresia Mwela said the day Father Samson disappeared, he was on guard, when he passed the gate they greeted each other . He was going for an evening work out.
But by the time he finished his 12-hour shift, he had not returned and the next day he received news of his death.
His last word
Commenting on his last sermon on Sunday, June 5, this year, the centre's minister, Robert Maekena, said Father Samson urged people to keep on praying to God as the present world has turned upside down and atrocities are rampant.
"I remember on last Sunday in church he also said that the clergy should thank and pray to God for his protection and say that acts of violence are extreme," said Maekena, who is also the service chairman of the youth center.
