The agony of acid attack 4 years later

Tanga. A fisheries officer, who in 2011 was to testify in over 40 court cases involving dynamite fishers in Tanga Region, nearly lost his life in an acid attack that left him deformed, The Citizen has learnt.

Mr Hyasint Donald Wariro, 47, a principal marine technician in-charge of the northern zone Moni­toring, Control and Surveillance (MCS) Unit in the Ministry of Live­stock and Fisheries Development, is now enduring the agony follow­ing the attack, four years down the road.

The fisheries officer was trans­ferred from the Ministry’s head office in Dar es Salaam to Tanga covering the northern zone regions of Manyara, Kilimanjaro and Aru­sha on April 26, 2006.

Mr Wariro, a father of three young sons aged three, six and nine, lost his right eye, and to date he has undergone seven operations in five different hospitals of Bombo in Tanga, Kilimanjaro Christian Medical Centre (KCMC) in Kilima­jaro Region, Muhimbili National Hospital, Tumani Hospital and the Comprehensive Community Based Rehabilitation in Tanza­nia (CCBRT), all based in Dar es Salaam.

Apart from losing his right eye, Mr Wariro, who told The Citizen that he was never given a single cent by the government to cover for his ongoing medical treatment, said the acid attack at 7.45am on a Tues­day of April 11, 2011 also affected his skin in most parts of his body.

“Had it not been for my health insurance, I don’t think that I would have survived until today,” he said, adding: “I am surviving by the grace of God.”

“As you can see, my right ear has been impaired. I have big scars in my face, neck, chest and arms,” he said, adding that he underwent his seventh operation in October, last year. “The acid attack has caused nightmares to me. I am even being stigmatised by my children who sometimes draw a picture of a per­son without an eye and they laugh at the picture,” Mr Wariro told The Citizen soon after he had given a testimony at a seminar here. “My youngest child is scared of me, thinking I am a ghost,” he narrated.

The two-day seminar organised by the National Environment Man­agement Council (NEMC) with the support of WWF Tanzania, brought together players in the fisheries industry, including the Judiciary Department, the Police Force, the Fisheries Division, the office of the Director of Public Prosecution and local government authorities to build understanding of the magni­tude of dynamite fishing and how to solve the problem.

Mr Wariro, who now teaches at Mbegani Fisheries Education and Training Agency in Bagamoyo, Coast Region, claimed that dyna­mite fishers, who faced cases in court, hired two motorcyclists to execute the acid attack on him as he was leaving his home for work on a Tuesday morning.

He said, he met the grisly incident at Makorora where he had rented a house after he was expelled from the house he had rented earlier in Tanga City. This was after he had arrested the son of a landlord fish­ing using explosives.

“Dynamite fishers are very dan­gerous and they have powerful syn­dicates like drug cartels,” he said in his testimony that left some semi­nar participants shedding tears.

Mr Wariro said, he commuted to work using his worn-out Yamaha motorcycle or a bicycle covering seven kilometres from Makorora to his office near the police officers’ mess. He added: “I used to start boat patrols at 4am. We succeeded in arresting a good number of the dynamite fishers but these guys are very daring.”

He claimed that most of the 43 cases in dynamite fishing that he had testified against were dismissed in what he described as ‘very ques­tionable environments’.

“The dynamiters in Tanga City have an association in which they contribute Sh50,000 each for brib­ing anyone, including magistrates, when their accomplices get into trouble,” testified the fisheries offi­cer. For instance, Mr Wariro said, when he at one time filed a case against a dynamiter, the magistrate asked him whether he was serious that he wanted to prosecute one for only possessing dynamite.

“Go arrest the supplier of the dynamite, not the one possessing it,” this was the response from the magistrate,” said Mr Wariro, adding that one day he seized 120 detona­tors in one house but nothing was done to the culprits.

He said, if Tanzania was demo­cratic and observed the rule of law, courts should jail dynamiters to end the scourge.

Asked whether he was ready to lead the anti-dynamite fishing crusade again, he quipped: “Yes, I am ready. And now, I am training young people on how to fight dyna­mite fishing.”

Mr Wariro holds a Diploma in Fisheries Science and a Diploma in Marine Engineering.

Aneny Nyirenda, a fisheries officer in Tanga City, said the war on dynamite fishing was proving insurmountable because it involved wealthy people and heavyweight politicians.

Mr Winfried Haule, a retired assistant director of fisheries, was commissioned to conduct a study on issues affecting effective investi­gation and prosecution of dynamite fishing cases in magistrate’s courts in coastal districts of Tanzania.

He told the seminar on Tuesday that the study team consisting of government officers appointed from the Fisheries Development Division, the police and the Attor­ney General’s office assessed 122 cases of fishing using explosives between 2000 and 2012.

Mr Haule said, out of 122 cases, 70, equivalent to 57 per cent, did not result in convictions on various grounds, including lost files.

“Blast fishing is a shame to the nation,” said NEMC Director Gen­eral Bonaventure Baya, adding that the malpractice, which is rampant, was also detrimental to the marine ecosystem.