Tanzania: Four Hurt in Clashes Over Helicopters

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The Citizen (Dar es Salaam)

10 October 2008
Posted to the web 10 October 2008

Patty Magubira
Tarime

Four youths were seriously injured in Tarime yesterday as supporters of rival parties clashed over a landing spot for campaign helicopters.

The incident was the latest in a string of acts of violence that have rocked the area in campaigns for Sunday's by-election.

The rival youths clashed after disagreeing over "landing rights" at a football ground in Tarime Town for helicopters used by the ruling CCM and opposition Chadema in campaigns. Four people were admitted to hospital with slash wounds.

Chadema national chairman Freeman Mbowe was the first to use a helicopter on Wednesday to campaign for the party's parliamentary and civic candidates. CCM followed suit yesterday as tensions ahead of the by-election rose to fever pitch.

CCM hired the four-seater helicopter from Titan Air Limited based in Nairobi. It landed on the football pitch at 12.45pm with only the pilot, Mr Evance Sigilai, on board.

The Chadema helicopter followed shortly afterwards, but a Chadema supporter, Mr Genya Sabai, 25, waved a red cloth at the pilot as he was about to land, apparently signalling to him to find another spot on which to land.

Mr Sabai was slashed on the cheek in the ensuing commotion, while three other people said to be Chadema supporters also sustained knife wounds on various parts of their bodies.

Mara Regional Police Commander Liberatus Barlow named the other victims as Massawe Edward, 23, Athuman Seleman, 22 and Mahende Daniel, 25. He said no suspect had been arrested in connection with the attack.

Eyewitnesses said they saw a person suspected to have been involved in the attack flee in a Nissan Patrol belonging to a prominent Tarime businessman.

The victims were rushed to Tarime District Hospital where they received several stitches. A nurse said Mr Sabai received 19 stitches on the cheek wound.

Dozens of irate Chadema supporters gathered outside the hospital to protest the incident. Mr Mbowe later visited the injured and condemned violence targeting the party's supporters.

Some Tarime residents complained that police did nothing to stop a youth from attacking the Chadema supporters.

Mr Barlow said two people were arrested with machetes, but added that they were not directly linked to the incident.

Meanwhile, former Tanga CCM youth wing regional secretary Mwita Mwikwabe Waitara, who defected to Chadema on Wednesday, warned against any attempt to rig the by-election. He said residents of Tarime would not be cowed or intimidated into voting for a candidate they did not want.

Mr Waitara wondered why the Government had deployed hundreds of police officers in Tarime during the campaigns and not at any other time, including during tribal clashes.

"I don't know if President Jakaya Kikwete is aware that CCM secretary general Yusuf Makamba has declared that the party will win by any means."

He said residents were wondering why the ruling party was spending millions on campaigns yet the Government had neglected basic public services and economic activities.

Mr Waitara said the Government had relaxed some restrictions it had imposed on Tarime residents to win support for CCM.

He said all residents residing along the border with Serengeti National Park, who were imprisoned on allegations of encroaching in the park, should be released before the election if CCM expected to penetrate the area.

Lashing out at prominent traders supporting CCM during the by-election campaigns, Mr Waitara cautioned the traders over using their wealth to impose candidates on the electorate.

Mr Waitara said Mr Makamba was wrong to say Tarime was poor, while his own government had for over 40 years ensured that people in the district remained poor.

Flanked by Chadema youth wing director, Mr John Mnyika, Mr Waitara said Tarime was capable of serving as a food basket for the entire Mara Region, but lacked the required strategies.

"So long as CCM failed to forge development in Tarime district for over four decades, the party cannot have a strategy of developing the district overnight," he said.

The parties have today and tomorrow to wind up heir campaigns before more than 160,000 voters go to the polls on Sunday.

Yesterday, the parties held several campaign rallies, with Chadema and CCM bigwigs making full use of helicopters to crisscross the vast district which has a poor road network.

The Tarime parliamentary seat fell vacant following the death in a road accident last July of Mr Chacha Wangwe of Chadema.

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