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Wednesday August 12, 2009
Columnist
Cops run a protection racket
Adam Lusekelo, 12th August 2009 @ 01:45,
For ages the talk in the Dar es Salaam grapevine has been – the Tanzanian police has been running a protection racket in the country. My spies tell me that the police have also been very creative in their money-making schemes within the force. Entrepreneurship is now the norm amongst cops.
Did you know that those motorised police (in those tetracycline patrol cars) have to pay the Mzee who allocates them the cars 20,000 a day for all the money making projects to them?
And if you have an annoying rival in business, with the right pay, you could have him or her charged with murder? It is now an open secret in Tanzania, that if you see a cop then you have to worry, or run or kaa skwea! They have this magic of finding ganja in your pockets, even if you are not a smoker like me.
With the NMB raid in Temeke last week still fresh in our minds, my spooks in the police tell me that two Tanzania People's Defence Forces (TPDF) soldiers and two policemen were among those arrested following the daring raid, in which the robbers lobbed hand grenades. The first time in peacetime Tanzania.
Two people were killed and 14 injured in the robbery before the crooks fled with 61million shillings. Last Monday, Dar es Salaam Special Zone police chief, Suleiman Kova, said that six people have been nabbed in connection with the armed robbery.
I wonder if Commander Kova knows that, when bullets are not flying, his boys are busy in protection and extortion rackets in the city. They are said to be cruising at night with those ‘Defender' land-rovers to collect the swag from bar to bar. The going rate is shs 15,000 a bar. Most bar owners gladly hand over the money.
They reckon it is better to have those ‘Defender' SMGs facing the armed robbers. That is better than their businesses having to face bandits armed with SMGs. Anyway, there is a palpable sense of unease among the citizenry in the country. Just where did the armed robbers get grenades and other high calibre guns?
And the murderous punks seemed to be very willing to use those weapons. Blowing up unarmed citizens with grenades is simply terrifying. One's imagination may wonder. That it now seems to be the norm for everyone to ‘eat' from their offices. Some of the politicians are doing so handsomely ‘eating' from their offices.
Meremeta, Richmond, Tangold, EPA are just incidences of crooks in suits stealing and therefore ‘eating' billions without a shred of remorse from them and no punishment. Others might be tempted to think on the same lines. If a cop comes to you and says:
"Say, ndugu mwananchi. I have not eaten all day, can't pay my kids school-fees, my wife has just delivered baby number two. I have nothing, man. All I have is this SMG with a full magazine, which the government lent me for a while.
Can you help?" I will gladly empty my pockets to him and look the other way. Then I will run like the devil before the ‘mbabe' empties the contents of his SMG on us civilians. God forbid! alusekelo@gmail.com adamlusekelo.blogspot.com
