Dar es Salaam. Police in Tanzania remain under constant pressure from citizens decrying forced disappearance incidents that continue to dominate headlines in the East African nation, casting serious doubt on the law enforcement authorities’ capability to ensure people’s safety. 

Families whose members have mysteriously disappeared have been making desperate calls to authorities to expedite efforts to find what might have happened to their loved ones with the hope that the completion of such processes would allow them to reconnect with them finally.

The latest of these families is that of the 24-year-old TikToker Shadrack Chaula, who avoided jail time after Tanzanians crowd-funded to buy back his freedom. Chaula was arrested for burning a portrait of President Samia Suluhu Hassan. He was subsequently charged with publication of false information and sentenced to two years in prison or paying a fine of Sh5 million.  

But in a surprising twist of events, on the night of August 2, 2024, unidentified people picked Chaula up from his home at Ntokela, Rungwe district in Mbeya, boarding him into a white Land Cruiser and disappearing with him to unknown places. His family has been desperately searching for him since then to no avail.

The young man’s father, 56-year-old Yusuf Chaula, has pleaded with the authorities to support his family’s efforts to locate their loved one, saying that they have tried all means to find him, but none has worked. The senior Chaula begged the police to release his son if, by any chance, they were the ones holding him from them.

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“If it is the government that is holding him because it was the police that first arrested him, then we plead that it let him free,” the desperate father appealed. “But the police say they don’t have him. We have been to all the police stations, and they say they don’t have him there. Then the police should work with us to find him.”

“Whether he’s alive or dead,” the senior Chaula added, “I want to see my son.”

On August 9, 2024, Mbeya regional police commander Benjamin Kuzaga said that authorities there had launched an investigation into the matter, inviting everyone who might have any information to help them find the missing men to share it with the law enforcement authority.

However, many Tanzanians online received the call to share information with the police negatively while accusing the force of failing to fulfil its mandate to ensure the safety of citizens properly. Many reminded police of other cases of alleged forced disappearances, some of which police denied involvement only to come out later to confirm it was holding them.

One such case involves a member of the opposition party CHADEMA, Kombo Twaha Mbwana. The 29-year-old resident of Handeni, Tanga, went missing for 29 days before police confirmed on July 14, 2024, that it was holding him over social media “abuse.” For almost a month, when his family searched Mbwana at police stations, police denied holding him.

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“Seventy per cent of Tanzanians believe that the police are the perpetrators of these forced disappearance incidences,” an X user named Papaa Kitarasa reacted to the police’s statement. “The remaining thirty per cent are the beneficiaries of the system you try to maintain.” 

Another user named Jackson reacted: “[Police] try so hard to force us to resist arrest from people who identify as police officers. You should rather try harder to remove that perception from us.”

Police deny involvement in alleged kidnapping incidences. However, the Commission for Human Rights and Good Governance, the national focal point for the promotion and protection of human rights and good governance in Tanzania, confirmed recently that, indeed, some police stations in the country serve as “torture chambers” for suspected criminals.

Meanwhile, many other families in Tanzania continue to look for their loved ones who had gone missing mysteriously. In fact, a few days before Yusuf came forward to plead with authorities to expedite their investigations into the disappearance of his son Shadrack, another family from Tanga made similar appeals.

On August 5, 2024, the family of Enock John Chambala, a 41-year-old sisal trader from Tanga, revealed that for the past month, they’ve been trying to locate their loved one but have not succeeded in learning of his whereabouts, pleading with authorities for assistance.  

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Baraka John Chambala, the brother of the missing trader, told The Chanzo that Enock disappeared in circumstances that resemble abduction, including leaving food that was cooking in the kitchen and a door that was ajar. Baraka described the scenes as “extraordinary.”

They reported the incident to the police, who have not discovered their loved ones’ whereabouts for a month. However, Baraka is optimistic that they’ll finally locate his brother and reconnect with him after many sleepless days and nights.