STRAIGHT TALK :Zanzibar now at the mercy of hooligans
What you need to know:
Some people suspect that these were from Zanzibar government’s own brigades – KMKM, Fire Department, JKU, Volunteers and Mafunzo -- as they appeared angry at public condemnation of minister Haji Omar Kheir for letting them loose hooligans to beat and threaten people at the time when the voter registration system was going on in Unguja.
Early this week a group of hooded vigilantes masquerading in day light invaded a private radio station – Coconut FM – located in Zanzibar Town in an excuse of defending a government minister over a debate that was carried by the radio.
Some people suspect that these were from Zanzibar government’s own brigades – KMKM, Fire Department, JKU, Volunteers and Mafunzo -- as they appeared angry at public condemnation of minister Haji Omar Kheir for letting them loose hooligans to beat and threaten people at the time when the voter registration system was going on in Unguja.
Quizzed by Coconut FM, minister Kheir denied having knowledge of the vigilantes and instead put it that those were hooligans and they have nothing to do with the government’s own brigades, whilst everyone saw them around in government vehicles. They have been spotted carrying sub machine guns, pangas, clubs and at least when invading and parading at the radio station several times, they were spotted carrying a chain saw.
The police in Zanzibar denied any knowledge of the vigilantes or masked hooligans whilst reports are abound that they have been beating people, attacking them day and night, abducting and torturing them. Claims have been made in public but the police have chosen not to see them while they openly went at registration stations and maraud around fearlessly.
In a strange development, several people have been arrested by the police and their only folly being to resist the vigilantes so that they would not plant illegal voters by ferrying those who are not residents of particular constituencies, those that are said not to have valid Zanzibar Identity Cards or those by law who were not supposed to have them because they are not Zanzibaris. The vigilantes paraded around to discourage the faint hearted not to come forward and hence relinquish their democratic right to register ahead of the October 25.
The heinous act against Coconut FM was a threat to freedom of opinion and freedom of expression but also the right to information. These shameless acts could not be stopped by any one because the police turned a blind eye and so far it means no one has been brought to book. The sad thing is that the media in Zanzibar did not report at all about the incident which threatened to demolish what has so far been achieved where as there has been a period of growth and strengthening of the same.
The media in Tanzania that is Dar es Salaam cared the least not withstanding that their colleagues’ lives and safety was at risk and it was threat to the media fraternity in the country as whole. Hardly any paper or radio or television have reported this case.
The Mainland media have not been adequately reporting on the issue of vigilantes as if nothing was happening here in Zanzibar or that it was nothing of their concern.
The saddest part not a single newspaper had published a story from at least two press releases I know that have been issued regarding the Coconut FM - one from the CUF and one from journliasts’ association (Wahamaza).
Not a single human rights body has raised a finger or a voice and I want to believe that this was intended. That they do not care what is happening in Zanzibar, otherwise what can one think when no human right body has sent any team to investigate at the minimum.
It has been the darkest day for media in Tanzania when one of their own is not defended when besieged and dark darkest day when human rights bodies in Tanzania as whole denies to know what is happening in Zanzibar.
