The Citizen (Dar es Salaam)
26 May 2011
editorial
The Police Force has once again featured negatively in the latest research findings of a human rights monitoring non-governmental organisation. The Legal and Human Rights Centre (LHRC) 2010 Report names the force as the most corrupt institution in the country, and a major violator of human rights.
It was the case also in previous LHRC reports, and it shows that a lot still needs to be done to reform this important state agency. It will be recalled that in 2009, Inspector General of Police Saidi Mwema launched a much-publicised drive to clean up the force. However, we are not sure if this has led to any tangible achievements so far.
That the force is rotten to the core insofar as corruption is concerned is a well-known fact. Traffic police officers openly take bribes from motorists, as if it is their birthright. Corrupt officers have also turned police stations into cash cows, and it is not unusual for suspects to be set free after tidy sums of money change hands.
It is now virtually impossible for ordinary people to get assistance at police stations without giving some sort of “incentive” to the officers. Senior officers sitting in their plush offices at Police Headquarters in Dar es Salaam are no doubt aware that police stations have become no-go zones for people in need of assistance, but who have no money. But what are the big guns in the force doing about this?
The force also stands accused as a major human rights abuser. Examples of this abound, the most recent being the shooting dead by police of five people at the North Mara gold mine in Tarime District. As if that was not enough, the way police handled the aftermath of the killings has done nothing to endear them to the public, particularly the bereaved families.
Early this year, police violently broke up an opposition demonstration in Arusha, killing four people in the process. Is it any wonder then that the force is a permanent fixture in these damning reports?
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