Another Police raid on a newspaper office in Dar es Salaam

MANY people have condemned a recent action by police force in Dar es Salaam region of attacking the offices of a weekly and the most incisive Kiswahili newspaper in Tanzania, the Dar es Salaam based Mwanahalisi and made away with a computer containing editorial inputs of the investigative journalists’ reports. The group consisting of about seven policemen in their plain clothes sent by the country’s Director of Criminal Investigations Mr. Robert Manumba hijacked the office at around 10:00 o’clock in the morning and put under arrest the Chief Editor, Mr. Said Kubenea whom they accused of colluding with a National Bank of Commerce (NBC) employee in revealing confidential information on certain private accounts at the bank. The unfortunate action was perpetrated on 18th July and was followed by searching of the residence of the Chef editor who is also the Executive Director of the publishing firm, Hali Halisi Publishers Limited. The lucubration is the literary child born and a laughing stock. The police’s untimely search clearly proved unpopular and immediately became the subject of a severe criticism by advocates of the human rights and freedom of the fourth estate, the independent mass media fraternity. The protestors ranged from journalists to political leaders to readership and to common folk who are frustrated and angry at revelations of the most malpractices (the so-called UFISADI in Swahili language) in high places.

The Chief editor of Mwanahalisi weekly tabloid, Saed Kubenea narrating his ordeal to pressmen a day after, how he was attacked by plain clothed policemen in his office at Kinondoni-Hananasif and later set free. He is flanked on his left by the Chairman of the Tanzania’s editors’ forum in a press conference hall at Maelezo Auditorium in Dar es Salaam.

The discontent was so palpably charged with emotion that the Director of Criminal Investigations (DCI) at Police Headquarters in Dar es Salaam Mr. Robert Manumba felt bound to attempt an explanation. Speaking to pressmen in Dar es Salaam on the following day, he said the search was part of investigations into complaints that the newspaper had released banking secrets for public consumption. According to the DCI, an NBC Limited employee is alleged to have improperly passed on details of the latter’s client to Kubenea who then published them in his newspaper. Many peace lovers have condemned the raid saying it’s a government’s move in a bid to protect top most officials implicated in various financial scams in the country. Tanzanian journalists under the platform of the Editors' Forum and human rights groups have demanded an immediate and unqualified apology from the Government over the raid, vowing to continue publishing classified documents if doing so was in the interest of the public. A few months ago Mr Kubenea and consulting editor Ndimara Tigambwage were seriously wounded after a group of armed men invaded their offices. Mr Kubenea was flown to India for treatment after his sight was impaired. Flanked by leaders of various media associations, NGOs and human rights groups, Editors' Forum chairperson Sakina Datoo called the invasion an attack on press freedom. Any government which adheres to the principles of good governance ought to shun and condemn such actions, she said. This is to threaten investigative journalists’ works that the government’s agents want them to abandon investigating and publishing crucial information which the public at this moment requires.

The Director of Criminal Investigations in the country, Mr. Robert Manumba in one of the press conferences he held at the Information Auditorium Centre (Maelezo) in Dar es Salaam. He is flanked by a retired special zone Police Commander of the Dar es Salaam region, Commissioner of Police Mr. Alfred Tibaigana

Linking the invasion to a few individuals benefiting from grand corruption whom Mwanahalisi tabloid has been in the forefront to expose, Datoo wondered why the government has not stormed into houses of individuals suspected to have stolen Sh133billion from the Bank of Tanzania (BOT) External Payment Arrears (EPA) account. Why haven’t they invaded the houses of EPA suspects they are currently investigating and conduct a search, she demanded. “We (journalists) stole the dubious Richmond power generation contract and published it. We then stole contracts on the controversial BOT twin towers construction and published them. We stole documents on the Kiwira, Meremeta and EPA. I ask you where we would have been today if we wouldn’t be stealing confidential documents from the government” she inquired. Our job is to unearth the hidden and not to benefit a few individuals. she said. Ms Pili Mtambalike, the deputy executive secretary of the Media Council of Tanzania (MCT) said the organ now fears that the police act undermines efforts by journalists to expose individuals who have been ripping off billions of taxpayers' money. We condemn this move to silence journalists by using state organs. We shall make sure that editorial freedom is defended at all costs, the council executive emphasized. Tanzania Journalists Association (TAJA) chairman Hamza Kondo said the attack was an indication that there is massive graft within the government. He called for an unconditional apology from the Government. The director of the Tanzania Gender Networking Program (TGNP), Usu Mallya, joined other organizations to condemn the act. She called the move as meant to suppress the voice of patriotic journalists. The incident, she said, should serve as a challenge for journalists to write more analytical stories about the fate of our nation without centering too much on attacks levelled at specific personalities.

Ayoub Ryoba, the chairman of the Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA), and a lecturer at the Institute of Journalism and Mass Communication based in Dar es Salaam.

Mr Ayoub Rioba, the chairman of the Media Institute of Southern Africa (Misa), called the invasion an abuse of state organs. Mr Bernard Mapalala, the deputy managing editor for The Guardian, said police invasion of Mwanahalisi offices indicates that a huge amount of money stolen from pubic coffers is being used to interfere with the work of state organs, to divide journalists among themselves and legislators. Leaders of the (police) force should not allow themselves to be used by criminals, he said. Mr Manumba told reporters over the weekend that Mr Kubenea was suspected of colluding with the bank official to publish information on some bank clients. But Mr Kubenea demanded that the DCI tell the public whose accounts secrets he was looking for and who authorized him to do so. This is purely a bank issue and not the DCI's matter, he said.