Dar es Salaam. Good morning! The Chanzo is here with a rundown of major news stories reported in Tanzania on Thursday, September 29, 2022.
Police in Tanzania face fresh accusations of torture, murder
Fresh accusations of torture, humiliation and murder are rocking the Police Force amid growing demand for police reforms in Tanzania.
The latest accusations were first raised by Catherine Ruge, secretary-general of CHADEMA’s Women Wing (BAWACHA). On September 22, 2022, Ruge said in a Twitter post that police in Serengeti, Mara region shot dead four people, including her uncle.
“They arrested him [on September 21] around 7 PM while he was at his house,” Ruge reported. “By night, they took him and the three others to the bush and shot them, claiming they were robbers. We found the bodies at the mortuaries.”
On September 23, 2022, Mara regional police commander Longinus Tibishiwanu confirmed to the press the killing of the people, not four but three, describing the murder as the result of a shoot-out between the officers and the ‘robbers.’
According to a police statement, the fourth person was not killed as he managed to escape. He’s until now not been found.
Tibishiwanu named those murdered by the police as Mairo Togoro (56), a resident of Majimoto village; Mwise Simon Magabe (54), a resident of Nyamihuru; and Mugare Mokiri from the village of Nyamikobiti. All from the Serengeti district, in Mara.
“All of them died on the road while they were being rushed to the hospital,” Tibishiwanu told journalists.
But police’s explanations differ from those of the families of murdered individuals. Not only have the families denied their beloved ones were robbers but also have brought forth harrowing stories involving police brutality and humiliation.
Full story here.
Samia thinks the idea of domestic arbitration scares investors away from Tanzania
President Samia Suluhu Hassan on Thursday directed Attorney General Eliezer Feleshi to look into laws and regulations governing foreign investments in Tanzania with the view of reforming them to allow foreign investors to seek arbitration outside the country.
Opening the general meeting of the State Attorneys Association in the capital Dodoma, the Head of State said that it was not “just” to force people who have invested their money in the country to seek arbitration locally.
“Some investors shun [Tanzania] because of that reason,” President Samia revealed. “I have living examples in my hands. There are like three or four big [development] projects that were to be carried out in the country but they were cancelled because of this requirement.”
According to President Samia, the investors demanded that investment-related disputes be resolved by a third party. Because the government could not guarantee that, the investors had to find another place to put their money.
“I think, AG, we need to look at our investment laws very carefully,” President Samia said. “There are disputes that truly could be arbitrated domestically. But there are some disputes, to a serious investor, would not make sense to arbitrate locally. They won’t come. They will run away.”
Full story here.
WHO: COVID-19 vaccination in TZ requires political, religious leadership
The World Health Organisation (WHO) said Thursday that Tanzanians are willing to get vaccinated but it requires political, community and religious leadership by example.
Tanzania is considered one of a few African countries that have fully vaccinated less than 10 per cent of their eligible target population. As of June 2022, WHO reports Tanzania had fully vaccinated only eight per cent of the target population above 18 years, although COVID-19 vaccination was introduced in July 2021.
This is the case although a number of studies have shown that more than two-thirds of Tanzanians are willing or have the intention of getting vaccinated, something that WHO thinks that closing the intension-action gap should be a priority of the country.
It was against this background that with the technical support of WHO and partners, Tanzania set out to vaccinate at least 40 per cent of its target population across all regions during an intensified campaign, which took place in June 2022.
In addition to supporting all regions for improved vaccination campaigns, WHO focused on Manyara for apparent reasons, including that the Manyara region was consistently the least performing region since the beginning of the COVID-19 response in Tanzania.
Across the regions, full vaccination coverages varied from 3.7 per cent in Manyara to 39 per cent in Ruvuma. With 3.7 per cent full vaccination coverage, the Manyara region was the worst performing of the 31 regions of Tanzania.
“WHO’s strategic leadership, technical guidance and financial support enabled the Manyara region to triple its coverage since the beginning of COVID-19 vaccination in the country,” the organisation said in a statement.
The lesson that WHO learnt from the experience is that being a hierarchical society, the average Tanzanian’s COVID-19-related behaviour is determined by the interaction of his socioecological environment, which encompasses intrapersonal, interpersonal, community, institution, and policy levels.
“Therefore, a system thinking approach is imperative to explore the variables that affect COVID-19 uptake in Tanzania,” WHO said in a statement.
System thinking, which is the process of understanding how things influence one another within a whole, argues that it is difficult to isolate an individual from the environment in which he operates.
“It is impossible to understand the determinants of COVID-19 uptake among Tanzanians without considering the inter-paly of variables of the socioecological environment,” the UN agency said. “Indeed, social work theories insist that we do this for effective interventions.”
This is it for today and we hope you enjoyed our briefing. Please consider subscribing to our newsletter (see below) or following us on Twitter (here) as that is the best way to make sure you do not miss any of these briefings. And in case you have any questions or comments, please consider dropping a word to our editors at editor@thechanzo.com.
