Report Leo Odera Omolo In Kisumu City.

REPORTS emerging from Dar Es Salaam say a court in North-Western Tanzania has sentenced three men to death by hanging for killing a 14 year-old albino boy.

The accused persons were found guilty of attacking Matatizo Dunia and severing his legs in Bukombe district in Shinyanga Region, which is located in Central part of the country.

In the past two years, adds the report, there has been an alarming rise in murders of albino people. Witchdoctors use their body parts in potions they claim bring prosperity to their clients.

Dozens of people have been arrested, but the justice system is notoriously slow and this is the first conviction obtained by a court of law against the killers of albino in Tanzania..

These killings have spread terror and fears in far fields as in Kenya, Burundi, Rwanda and the Dr. Congo. At one time last year, the Association of Albinos in Rwanda had petitioned members of the East African Legislative Assembly, during their regular session in Kigali ,Rwanda and asked them to pressurize their governments to ensure the safety of the albinos.

In July this year, a court in neighboring Burundi, sentenced one person to life in prison and eight others to jail terms for the murder of albino people, whose remains were sold in Tanzania for rituals.

The three convicted men had attacked and killed the boy last December – one of a string of more than 50 albino murders that have taken place in Tanzania over the past two years.

The convicts were given the right to appeal against the death sentence – a punishment their lawyers described as harsh and unexpected.

Albino people are killed because potions made from their body parts are believed to bring luck, good omen and wealth.

Witchdoctors in East Africa, and particularly in Tanzania and Burundi, have made tens of thousands of dollars from selling potions and other items made from the bones ,hair, skin and genitals of the dead albino people.

Witchdoctors pay good money to people who murder and bring to them the albino’s body parts. And the Tanzanian government has publicly stated its desire to end the killings at all costs.

In March this year, President Jakaya Kikwete called on Tanzanians to come forward with any information they might have about the Albino killers.

Government officials banned witchdoctors from practicing, however many have continued to work clandestinely in their rural locations, and are also said to be getting protection from police and local administrators, perhaps on huge sums of money paid to the authorities for protection fees.

Some observers believe it is possible that the current court ruling will serve as deterrent to people who are hell-bent on making cheap money from killing and selling parts of bodies of albino people. But news analysts and those privy to witchdoctors information, say in a country as poor as Tanzania, it is most likely that some murders will continue, because so much money can be made from selling the body parts.

Even long before both Tanzania and Uganda attained their political independence in the early 1960s, there were reports of dead bodies disappearing from Hospital Morgues in Uganda and ending up in Tanzania for witchdoctors rituals. At one time, a Kenyan smuggler, driving a brand new sleek car was caught red-handed transporting a dead body, which was well dressed and placed in the back seat of his car.

The Kenyan had stuffed the body with gold stolen by Idi Amin’s soldiers in Eastern Uganda, which was destined for South Africa. The Kenyan told the court that he had intended to dump the dead body of the man in Tanzania with a witchdoctor, and continue with his journey to Dar Es Salaam on his way to the South Africa. In Mulago Hospital, Kampala, such was the order of the day until the Kenyan racketeer was caught red-handed.

There are estimated to be about 17,000 albino people living in Tanzania. They lack pigment in their skin and appear pale and weak.

In a secret “referendum”, Tanzania government had invited citizens to write down on slip of paper the names of people they suspected of involvement in the albino killings. Legal officials then gathered the names and passed them onto the police.

President Jakaya Kikwete said recently that the public should not fear retribution for naming the culprits. But there were concerns the process could be flawed and lead to accusations against innocent people or people with grudges against their neighbors could misuse the “referendum” to frame up their perceived enemies.

One prominent lawyer argued, “ When you invite people to accuse their neighbors of such a serious crime, you give them the opportunity to settle old scores,’ Mr Edmund Sengondo Mvungi told the BBC News Website, adding that, “this shouldn’t be subjected to a vote-like process. It’s a political ploy to please those who say the government is doing nothing”.

Superstitious miners and fishermen, hoping to get rich quick, have been accused of fueling the demand for the albino potions

“Our idea is to ensure the problem is eliminated and the country’s image to the international community is cleansed,” said President Kikwete.

‘People should feel free to name those who are behind these barbaric killings and other criminal acts within their localities”, President Kikwete said on a national TV..

Prime Minister of Tanzania, Mizengo Pendo, who wept uncontrollably in Parliament as he bewailed the albino murders, launched the campaign to arrest the killers.

The UN Secretary General, Mr. Ban Ki-moon had decried the albino killings during his visit last year to the country.

In neighboring Burundi, the government issued a ban in January on all traditional healing, in an effort to stop the killings, and several people have been arrested since the ban, on suspicion of flouting the order banning dealings in human bodies.

Tanzania has the largest concentration of witchdoctors in Africa, especially in its south-west district of Sumbawanga, Sukumaland and Tanga in the Coastal regions. In some places, the witchdoctors have become a big joke, even preventing young children from attending school classes.

Ends

leooderaomolo@yahoo.com

date: Sep 25, 2009
Subject: KILLERS OF ALBINOS IN TANZANIA ARE TO PAY FOR THEIR HEINOUS CRIMES WITH THEIR OWN LIVES AS COURT PRONOUNCE DEATH SEN5TENCE AGAINST THEM