Rufiji Killings: Families speak out

Kibiti. The serial killings of local government leaders in parts of Rufiji, Mkuranga as well as Kibiti districts and Kilwa Town have left many families in deep grief, fear and uncertainty.

The untimely, cruel deaths of more than 20 leaders in villages, wards and hamlets has shuttered the dreams which the targeted families had together with their now-departed beloved ones. The agony of losing a husband, the key bread winner, is psychologically too heavy for any woman, more so when she is jobless and left with children to fend on her own.

So far 31 people, including 11 police officers, have been killed since the killings began making headlines in early 2015.

The Citizen visited some of the families in which the killings have brought to an end dreams of children, dreams that have turned to horrific reality as widows struggle to rebuild their lives without key helpers.

Our visit to the victims first took The Citizen to two out of five who still live in Bungu, a village that has seen five of its leaders killed in a span of just one year. Many families have fled the village for fear of their lives. We step in the newly found residence of Ms Mwajuma Mustafa who has fled the house she previously lived with her husband Mohamed Thabiti who has since been killed.

Unknown assailants sprayed bullets on Mr Thabit, chairman of Nyang’undu Hamlet. The killers ended his life in December last year as he returned home.

“My life is now full of miseries following the death of my husband. He has left behind six children he fathered with me. I am now forced to do casual jobs to fend for his huge family,” says Ms Mustafa. Four of the children were studying at Banduka Primary School when her husband met his untimely death and Ms Mustafa cannot figure out how she will raise money for their fees.

What she earns from the casual jobs she does in the village, she says, earn her too little to feed her children and life is becoming more unbearable as days go by.

“I am thankful that I receive hand-outs from relatives of my late husband. When they fail, I leave it to God,” she says. But despite losing the husband who she wholly counted on as family head, Mwajuma says she won’t give up. “Notwithstanding the ups and down that I am going through, I am determined to soldier on to ensure my children get education,” she says.

The question why her husband, who was also a successful cassava farmer, had to meet such a brutal end, has been troubling Mwajuma for months now. She says: “I keep asking myself: what crime did he commit to make the killers decide to take his life with a gun… I’ve not been able to find an answer.” According to Mwajuma, many people are deserting the village in hordes and nearly all public servants have left.

She pleads with the government to put up an arrangement to support women who lost their husbands in the killings, so that they their children can lead a decent life.

Widow fails to speak

After a long conversation with Mwajuma, The Citizen’s next destination was at the house of a departed local government leader who was shot dead by the serial killers, Alife Mtulia. We find the family apprehensive and in deep sorrow.

The late Mtulia, who was Bungu Ward CCM Secretary and a member of the party’s National Congress, was shot dead as he took a birth. His body was found with eight bullet wounds.

His widow, Ms Zena Kimbungwi, developed high blood pressure and at the time of our visit, she was too stressed and physically weak to talk to our The Citizen journalist. Her first son, Mr Omari Mtulia chips in and says he will speak on behalf of his grieving mother. According to Omari, her mother started to experience the HBP problem after their father was killed.

His father, he says, is survived by nine children, two of whom are still in primary school, while seven others are through with their primary and secondary education.

“My late father had two wives. His second wife died long ago and my father decided to take all the children he fathered with that woman to their home so that they continue getting proper care,” he says. According to Omari, his father was also a trainer with a Saving and Credit Cooperative Society (Saccos), sponsored by a women empowerment institution (Wamu) set up by former First Lady Salma Kikwete. As it was the case with the late Mohamed Thabiti, the late Mtulia was also into cassava farming, which complimented his earnings that kept his family reasonably comfortable.

“It is a short period since our father was killed, but we are already feeling the gap. We are now experiencing difficulties as we cannot afford many essentials. You know, he was the pillar of our family and his death has made our aspiration for a better life ahead evaporate,” he says.

Another child of the late Mtulia, Hamisi, says the death of their father has shuttered his dream of joining college to study Procurement in the next few months.

“I had already talked to my father about my plan to pursue a Procurement course in October and he agreed to that idea and promised to pay fees for me. Now that he is dead, I have lost direction,” says Hamisi who completed Form Four at Msafiri Secondary School in Bungu. However, despite all these challenges, Hamisi has not lost hop. “I am still reorganising myself in the best way I can; I keep my dreams alive. I am looking for any means to start pursuing my course this year,” he says.

He prays that the government will support families affected by the killings so the children of the departed fathers may fulfil their dreams.

Husband left me pregnant

“My husband left me with a pregnancy of our fifth child. He had no permanent other than being a hamlet chairman. As you see me here I do not have any employment, we solely depended on agriculture. I do not know how I will cope with this burden of raising these children.”

These are the words of Ms Maimuna Nyingilini, the second wife of the departed chairman for Kazamoyo Hamlet (CCM) in Rufiji District, Mohamed Njiwa who was shot dead as he negotiated his way to his compound on a motorcycle he came riding.

It was around 8pm on March 12 when the killers took his life. The death has left his family in deep sorrow as it struggles to rebuild their lives.

“My husband was just coming in; we opened the door for him while he was still on his bike… After parking, he walked back to close the gate and suddenly, a gunman emerged from the shadows and shot him on the chest,” says Maimuna, adding: “I was in the kitchen and saw the killer but because it was a little dark, I couldn’t identify him,” she added.

Speaking with The Citizen while holding her last born and surrounded by her other children, Maimuna reveals that her husband was killed just a few months delivered their fifth child. This widow isn’t the only woman grieving for losing a husband in the hands of from mysterious killers. The killing of Wahabi Malinda who was militia guard employed by the Department of Natural Resources at Mabwegere Village in Rufiji District in April 29, 2017, has left his family in deep sorrow.

Malinda’s widow, Khadija Kingwanje, says the family lives in fear of being attacked by the killers. She was sitting with his husband inside their house on the fateful day when two armed men emerged around 8pm.