The police, in a case whose investigations are underway have identified him as a “businessman in Dar es Salaam.” But authoritative sources within the police force have it that the young man in his thirties is a middle cadre officer with TIS. On 5th January this year, at around 08.30 East African time, three young men stormed the offices of Mwanahalisi newspaper and at work were the editor of the newspaper, Mr. Saidi Kubenea and a prominent journalist and a media consultant Mr. Ndimara Tegambwage who has been providing consulting services to a two-year-old newspaper for at least seven months now.
The TIS officer, first arrested on second day after the incident and released almost immediately, only to be re-arrested weeks later, is an alleged architect of the assault in which Mr. Tegambwage sustained a deep cut by a machete on the nape well close to his right ear while Mr. Kubenea had his eyes spilled with unidentified chemical stuff which inflamed them and immediately impaired his sight.
The arrest of a TIS-officer has been a real issue within the police force. While authority at TIS would not wish to have the man’s identity revealed, other suspects are said to have been complaining about their mentor remaining free as they stayed behind bars at a Dar es Salaam remand prison.
Saidi Kubenea, the editor of a weekly Swahili tabloid Mwanahalisi, a leading investigate newspaper in the country.
Fear to reveal the identity of the alleged architect of the assault stems from Tanzania President Jakaya Kikwete’s visit to victims at the Muhimbili National Hospital in the port city within hours of the attack. The biggest question intelligence officers have been asking themselves is, “How will the president feel if he knows the men he visited at the hospital were victims of the dirty work of one of his men?” TIS is a coercive institution enjoying big budgets for secretive operations under the president. It has often been accused of misinformation, deliberate distortion, torture and excessive unaccounted for expenditures. And, it is yet to be known, who sent the TIS officer to attack a media outlet and journalists and how much was promised and, or received in advance for the execution of the task.
Unconfirmed reports have it that the planner of the attack was given cash money Tanzania shillings four (4) million (About US$ 3,800) as advance for seducing and recruiting would-be perpetrators to whom he introduced himself merely as Fredy – a businessman. Most observers in Dar es Salaam find the attack to be politically motivated. Mwanahalisi newspaper has, in the past 10 months, been known for its fraternity with truth and openness. It has been exposing corruption malpractices going in the country, mismanagement and bad governance in general. It has openly named those caught in the web and has doggedly refused to back down. While it has not been the initiator of many down-to-earth expose, it has dug such stories beyond the ordinary, to the surprise of almost everyone and drugged them to the dead end.
That has earned the paper cumulative unfriendliness and bitter resentment, mostly from politicians whose positions and fame have been subjected to exposure and public scrutiny; and thereby eroded them irreparably. Sources suggest that, that group could be central to enmity and consequent mentoring of attacks on media and its personnel. Mr. Tegambwage was probably not the target as he does not own the paper but goes there on an on-and-off-basis as consultant as he does with other media outlets. His style of writing is indeed compelling; his brilliant arguments send out messages that percolates both the bones and brains. Some people may not wish to see him plant ‘seeds of defiance’ as he has contacts with many media houses.
Veteran journalist Ndimara Tegambwage delivers a statement entitled “Freedom of Expression, Access of Information and Empowerment” in a ceremony to mark the World Press Freedom Day in Dar es Salaam (3/5/2008). He is one of the two journalists who were assaulted in a Dar es Salaam newsroom raid on January 4, this year. A court case against the suspects is still in court.
Mr. Tegambwage of Centre for Democratic and Strategic Management (IDEA) is also media consultant at a number of media outlets in the country and member of International Press Institute (IPI), a global forum of executive editors.
Distant sources suggest that the attack on Mwanahalisi was planned in a “kind of a network” that went beyond the city of Dar es Salaam. Intimidatory statements made public by Mr. Kubenea at a press conference in Dar es Salaam, according to press reports, have been made by persons from all over the country, possibly orchestrated to make life difficult for the publisher of Mwanahalisi and his staff.
A good number of “big” politicians have so far been linked to the attack. Journalists in the port city say it is too early to make public names of those mentioned behind the curtain until the hearing of the case starts and lawyers dig deep into statements made by Fredy and other suspects.
The recruitment of a TIS officer into a scum of this nature has a lot to tell on how the secret services of the organ under the President can be misused. And lives of the two victims of attack, and any other vocal journalists, remain in peril.
However, it requires pressure both internal and external to expose the role of TIS in the attack of a media outlet. However, the embarrassment of the president remains unavoidable. Proceedings in court can now provide the best forum at which exposure could be done without stint. Will the police be bold enough to identify the TIS official? What about the political big gun that recruited him: Will he let his agent be exposed, and at his detriment?
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