A village mourns their sons brutally killed in Tanzania

Published on June 28, 2008, 12:00 am

By Antony Gitonga

The month of June will forever remain etched in Lucy Mukami's life.

Before this, she would crane her neck whenever a vehicle passed on the muddy road by her home. For Mukami, 70, each day marked another day of hope of seeing her son, Patrick Gachibi Njuguna, who had gone to seek greener pastures elsewhere.

At her North Kinangop home, Mukami, a widow, eagerly awaited the son's return. Little did she know what lay ahead!

For her, June 12 will remain a dark day. This marked the darkest time in her life, and for Mikaro village residents.

Hundreds of kilometers away, three of their sons were brutally murdered and their charred bodies left in the streets over night, before being hurriedly buried in shallow graves.

Peter Chege Kimang'a, 28, Gachibi, 32 and John Mburu Mbuthia, 24 carried the hopes of peasant farmers in Mikaro.

After years of toiling in the farm, the three decided to join their childhood friends in Mombasa. Their aspirations were to seek a better living and to assist their aging and poor parents.

On reaching Mombasa, they were told of the booming trade in Tanzania where Kenyan traders bought goods and sold them for better prices across the border.

Killed and robbed

They decided to venture into Tanzania. And for more than three months, their dreams seemed to turn into reality.

But little did the three know their good fortunes were going to turn into beastly deaths.

And now controversy surrounds the killings in Sengerema, Mwanza, a fortnight ago.

It is reported that the three including their Tanzanian driver were lynched, set on fire and their charred bodies buried on the scene of the incident. It is also claimed the beastly murders were carried out as officials of the local authority watched.

Like in a horror movie, the charred remains that were left outside the Kahunda shopping centre were partially eaten by dogs before they were interred in shallow graves.

Prior to that, the attackers allegedly robbed them of Tsh10 million, vandalised a Toyota Mark II car they were traveling in and torched it on June 12.

Their relatives are seeking Government assistance to bring the bodies home, for decent burial.

According to Nichodemus Ngige Kimang'a, a relative, they were small-scale traders who moved from Mombasa to various Tanzanian towns to sell their wares.

"They have been doing this for the last couple of months since Easter and ventured into towns selling razor blades and other wares," says Ngige.

Speaking at their rural home, Ngige who is the elder brother to late Chege, said the four were killed in Kahunda village in Sengerema district at the shores of Lake Victoria.

All started when the three hired a car from a Tanzanian trader, Nyagiro Mutamwega from Bunda on May 3.

They were to be accompanied on the business trip by Mutamwega's driver, Emmanuel Sayi.

And for one month, the four hit the ground selling their wares until they were informed of a major market in Kahunda location.

Armed with their goods and eager to do more business, they arrived in the dusty town at around 10am.

But unknown to them, two days earlier there had been a robbery in the area and their presence and nationality was met with suspicion.

Ngige says according to reports from the locals, the local leaders led by the Sungusungu – a vigilante group, arrested the four.

"After interrogation, the leaders demanded to be bribed and the four obliged by opening up one of the bags that contained the Tsh10 million" he says.

On seeing the huge amounts of money, things changed fast and in unclear circumstances, the cash, goods and bags containing their personal effects disappeared.

Remains

What remained were the charred remains of the four who were brutally beaten and burnt by locals in the shopping centre and left in the open.

"The information we got after visiting the town is that they had large sums of money and after they were killed, they were buried a few metres apart in shallow graves," says Ngige.

A letter written to the police by the car owner, Mutamwega, who said he had talked to his driver moments before they were killed, confirms Ngige's account. He says he received a call from the local chief enquiring whether he knew the identity of the four.

"I ascertained their nationality and proved the car was mine and I had their national identity cards," he said.

Mutamwega went ahead to plead with the leaders to arrest the four and take them to the police station if they had any doubts.

That was the last he heard from his driver. His call the following day was answered by a police officer that informed him of the deaths.

When he visited the scene, it emerged that after the killing, a senior police officer supervised the burial of the four.

In the bizarre incident, two of the deceased were buried in a single grave, one outside a shop and another on the shores of Lake Victoria.

"We managed to identify the body of my driver but we could not get the money and personal effects and no one had been arrested," said Mutamwega. And like a bitter reminder, the shell of the once well-maintained car lay in the middle of the street, clearly indicating that it had been vandalised before it was set ablaze.

John Macharia, who was in Tanzania with the group earlier but was left behind, says he received a call about the deaths from the relatives of the Tanzania driver.

He later informed their relatives in the country who arrived a day after and recovered a phone belonging to one of the deceased from the local police station.

"We have talked to some of the locals who have clearly stated what happened but the Tanzanian police are trying to cover the issue," says Macharia.

Burial plans

According to Macharia, five relatives were able to identify the shallow graves in which the four were buried, one of which is a few metres from the lake.

"We dug up the graves and the bodies were in bad shape. We had to hurriedly rebury and mark them for easier exhumation when time comes," he says. The relatives say Naivasha MP John Mututho is the only Government representative who has assisted them as senior officials kept off the matter.

"No Government officer has come to our assistance apart from Naivasha MP who has raised the issue in Parliament and promised to follow it up," says a relative.

A visit to the homes of the deceased found emotional relatives making plans to have the bodies ferried back home. They have urged the Government to come to their aid.

According to Mzee Geoffrey Mbuthia whose son Mburu was among those killed, the families are traumatised.

"We appeal to the Government to come to our aid and help us get the bodies as the best we can do is give them a respectable burial," says Mbuthia.

The latest incident follows a similar one in which 14 Kenyans were shot dead on September 5, last year, by Tanzanian police on allegations that they were planning to rob a bank.

A team of Kenyan police and CID officers went to the Tanzanian town of Moshi where they confirmed that at least two of the dead were on police most wanted list.

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Jean-Louis Kayitenkore
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