Katika mashauri yaliyosikilizwa katika Mahakama ya ajira ya London, Uingereza, imeibuka taarifa kwamba kampuni ya mawasiliano ya Tigo ilihusika katika kutoa taarifa za simu za mwanasiasa maarufu wa Tanzania, Tundu Lissu, kwa mamlaka za serikali kabla ya jaribio la mauaji dhidi yake mwaka 2017.
Taarifa hizo zinadai kuwa Tigo ilitoa taarifa za eneo na mawasiliano ya simu ya Lissu kwa serikali ya Tanzania kuanzia tarehe 22 Agosti 2017, wiki chache kabla ya shambulio hilo kutokea. Taarifa hizi zilifuatiliwa kwa saa 24 kila siku, hadi siku ya tukio.
Shambulio la Risasi Dhidi ya Tundu Lissu
Lissu, ambaye ni mwanasheria na mwanasiasa wa upinzani, alishambuliwa kwa risasi 36 tarehe 7 Septemba 2017 nje ya makazi yake ya bunge mjini Dodoma. Alipigwa risasi akiwa kwenye gari lake na kujeruhiwa vibaya, lakini alinusurika kifo. Mpaka sasa, hakuna aliyekamatwa kuhusiana na shambulio hilo.
Mfanyakazi wa Tigo Afutwa Kazi kwa Kuwasilisha Malalamiko
Katika kesi hiyo, Michael Clifford, afisa wa zamani wa Tigo na mpelelezi wa zamani wa polisi, alidai kuwa alifutwa kazi kwa sababu ya kufichua taarifa kuhusu mpango wa utoaji wa taarifa za simu za Lissu kwa serikali ya Tanzania.
Clifford alidai kwamba baada ya kuhudhuria mkutano uliohusu utoaji wa taarifa hizo, alianzisha uchunguzi wa ndani na kugundua kwamba Tigo ilikuwa ikitoa taarifa za simu ya Lissu kwa serikali bila idhini yake.
Firm disclosed phone data of shot Tanzanian politician, UK tribunal hears
Tigo's former investigator claims he was unfairly dismissed for raising concerns over 2017 attack on Tundu Lissu
David Pegg
Tue 24 Sep 2024 15.58 BST
Gunmen tried to assassinate a Tanzanian opposition politician after a telecoms company secretly passed his mobile phone data to the government, according to evidence heard in a London tribunal.
The mobile phone company Tigo provided 24/7 phone call and location data belonging to Tundu Lissu to Tanzanian authorities in the weeks before the attempt on his life in September 2017.
The arrangement, which Tigo does not deny, was revealed in a claim by a former internal investigator for the company that was heard at the Central London employment tribunal this month.
Michael Clifford, a former Metropolitan police officer, claims that Millicom, the owner of the Tigo brand, sacked him for raising concerns about the affair.
“Mr Clifford’s case is that he was treated to his detriment, frozen out by [Millicom] and automatically unfairly dismissed because he made protected disclosures, or ‘blew the whistle’, in respect of matters of the utmost seriousness and public interest importance,” Clifford’s lawyers said in written submissions.
Lissu was
attacked in his car in the parking bay of his parliamentary residence in Dodoma on 7 September 2017. The car was sprayed with bullets and he received severe injuries. Nobody has been prosecuted for his attempted murder.
Five days later, Clifford began investigating after hearing on a conference call that Millicom had been providing Lissu’s mobile phone data to the Tanzanian government. He later handed a summary of his findings to his superiors, his lawyers said.
The report concluded that “information had been provided to the Tanzanian government since 22 August 2017”, the lawyers said. “From 29 August 2017, the intensity of the tracking increased and [Millicom] used its human and electronic resources to live-track 24/7 the location of two of Mr Lissu’s mobile phones.”
The data was passed to the government via WhatsApp messages, which Millicom was later asked to delete. No formal legal request for the data appeared to have been filed.
“In the claimant’s reasonable belief, this information tended to show that [Millicom] was involved in an attempted political assassination and an act of terrorism,” Clifford’s lawyers said.
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Clifford claims that after escalating his concerns, his relationship with his managers began to break down and they began to marginalise him within the company, before making him redundant in the autumn of 2019. Millicom disputes Clifford’s claim.
The company provides telecoms services to emerging markets in Latin America and also operated in parts of Africa during the period Clifford was employed. Its position is that at the time Clifford was dismissed, it was in the process of winding down a substantial proportion of its activities in Africa.
Tanzania remains a dangerous country in which to be a member of the political opposition, despite a change of president in 2021. On Monday, police arrested Lissu and at least a dozen others before planned protests against killings and the
Chanzo. The Guardian UK
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