Rutashubanyuma
JF-Expert Member
- Sep 24, 2010
- 219,468
- 911,184
Every time I hear tragic events associated with mob-justice I keep asking myself whether the government could have done something different to avert such a crisis. Sadly, in most of my meditations reveal actually the government is culpable of inadvertently fomenting mob justice as a way of evening out an injustice?
Justice exalts a nation and injustice humiliates a nation.
Whether we admit it or we remain on path of denial, the truth remains that we are a nation that has been smitten by injustice to the core of our moral values.
From a day we elect our leaders to a day we bury them, the truth and justice seem to have grown wings for themselves and flown away to the unknown destination!
Hardly, do a system that has little regard to the will of voters; as a result of perpetual electoral rigging, do that nation advance anywhere because injustice perverts fairness which is the pillar of any developmental discourse. No sooner a cocoon of incompetent imposters assumes a public office they spend entire period of their reign regimenting themselves with people who share their values of subverting the truth and justice so long as they are the direct beneficiaries! We, reluctant onlookers, also are not by any means blameless.
No sooner these public looters become rich we treat them with reverence and in many ways condoning the rot among us. Stories of how so and so had acquired illicit wealth, become instantly major talking points of national pride and jubilation instead of ridicule!
When a leader dies we overlook his transgressions which are plethora and waste a lot of time deifying the dead as if he was the blameless deity! Especially during obsequies gathering, our moral rot tends to be passim! In our twisted minds, the dead are godly and they were wrongly accused during their short stay on the earth. How naive and hypocritical have we become?
Since we have chosen injustice instead of justice then we should also be contented with lawlessness as a way of living however disgusting that is mob-justice, I mean
Unaccountable leadership foments mob justice.
Our legal system is structured in such a way our leaders are; in practical terms, above the law! Where in our constitutional dispensation we have laid down a clear benchmark for our public servants such as the qualifications of being an MP but we overlook such constitutional imperatives just to eat our daily bread!
In almost every-way, our bellies have become our God! If we are not in love with injustice how do we exculpate ourselves when a convicted criminal like Andrew Chenge could still be serving in our parliament? The message is abundantly loud and clear that the law serves the powerful but not the rank and file in our society.
In Chenges specific case, the accused had admitted and willingly accepted to serve a three year sentence through an alternative penalty of paying a Tshs 700, 000/= in lieu of serving behind bars. We have laid clear constitutional imperatives that no one can ascend to the Augusta House only if he is not a convicted criminal of more than a year. Surely, Mr. Chenge lost his parliamentary seat on the day he paid that fine ensuing from a conviction of traffic felonies.
Another leader who was treated favourably by our law enforcing bodies was the then R.C for Tabora Mr. Ukiwaona Ditopile Mizuzuri, now deceased. The guy had murdered a Daladala bus driver with a pistol following a heated altercation. Under our laws, murder charges are not bailable but the police manouvred to downgrade the charge sheet to manslaughter which is bailable so the big man could be enjoying his freedom as he awaits judgment of his convoluted misdemeanors.
We will never know how the judiciary would have settled the case because God had seen enough of this injustice and took the accused away. But again, here we were witnesses to those in positions of power being treated differently from the average guy on the street. The big question in Ditopiles case was how did the police concluded that that was a case of reckless disregard of human life and not intentional murder? We have to remember no police was an eye witness so their hollow observations must have been to ingratiate and placate the rulers of the day.
During the hearing of criminal case against Basil Pesambili Mramba and his allegedly co-conspirators we had a former president Ben Mkapa who mustered the audacity to depone under oath that his government had approved the purchase of controversial building in Italy for our foreign office use! When the highest ranking public official divulged that his government had intentionally flouted the procurement act but no DPP office could investigate whether a former president had committed criminal acts during his heydays in office then we know the law serves the powerful not everybody as it is supposed to!
The impartiality before the hands of justice were also tested and found wanting in Richmond/Dowans saga, the international tribunal established beyond reasonable doubt the then Premier Edward Lowassa appointed GNT - i.e Government Negotiating Team - was offensive to the procurement act but went on to justify it by arguing if the government had condoned those improprieties the victims of circumstances in Dowans should not be needlessly punished!
The issue there remains our law enforcement agencies such as Takukuru via its top Boss David Hosea had issued a public statement clearing those behind the Richmondgate/Dowansgate speciously claiming they had operated within the ambits of the law something they did not! There were recommendations from the Augusta House: a number of heads behind the scandal ought to be rolling let alone charged in a court of law but the government either procrastinated or prevaricated and today no senior government official has ever been implicated, tried or jailed over Richmond/Dowans malfeance!
In both the Mkapa and Dowans tragic spectacle we learn that public official conspiracies to break the law are not criminal acts while a number of court decisions touching on rights and privileges of the needy vividly indicate it is now trite law that conspiracies to offend the law are punishable under our judicial system.
Mob justice confirms lack of faith with our governance.
Yesterday top government officials in Mwanza led by JKs written eulogy squandered an opportunity to address the causes and effects of mob justice as they blamed it for the loss of life of one of their own! No government official had the time or the empathy even to wish well the family of a young boy whose dreams were cut short by a CCM stalwarts gun inflicted wound that proved fatal to end such a precocious life! Clearly, our leaders view and perceive their lives are of more value than ours!
No wonder in justifying expenditure of Treasury monies on overseas medical treatments to our leaders during medical doctors strike, JK unleashed a Broadway statement which can be contextualized as .without receiving overseas medical treatment our leaders would die! But JK is amnesiac of the truth because we took Nyerere to St. Thomas Hospital in London, UK; to what Mkapa later had erroneously referred that if he had not done that we would not have understood him! How fallacious that kind of thinking is, and the less I talk about it the better?
The good news, Nyerere came back in a body bag and overseas medical treatment did not save his poor life. Paradoxically, as I am penning this article down JK is in US attending to a medical tourism excursion hoping, like Mkapa in Nyereres case, to salvage his poor life.
Running away from the effects of policy decisions has produced an insular leadership.
We have a leadership that is so divorced to the effects of the policies it is generating no wonder it has become extremely insular from the truth and justice. As our leaders are running away from the poorly cooked policies, through accessing overseas social services on our payroll, they are churning out on daily basis that leadesrhip has lost the legitimacy to lead.
We humbly asked our colonial rulers to leave us alone not because we were better to manage our own destiny than them but because we believed that we were sole targets affected by governance decisions.
So we deeply felt we were able to provide a more caring and sensitive leadership to ourselves but that pretentious aura of home grown leadership is gone possibly forever.
Do we still have a moral argument to convince future mob justice seekers that the law is for them if they can exercise restraint and patience under these ominous onuses? The answer to that question remains a big NO at least for now .
Justice exalts a nation and injustice humiliates a nation.
Whether we admit it or we remain on path of denial, the truth remains that we are a nation that has been smitten by injustice to the core of our moral values.
From a day we elect our leaders to a day we bury them, the truth and justice seem to have grown wings for themselves and flown away to the unknown destination!
Hardly, do a system that has little regard to the will of voters; as a result of perpetual electoral rigging, do that nation advance anywhere because injustice perverts fairness which is the pillar of any developmental discourse. No sooner a cocoon of incompetent imposters assumes a public office they spend entire period of their reign regimenting themselves with people who share their values of subverting the truth and justice so long as they are the direct beneficiaries! We, reluctant onlookers, also are not by any means blameless.
No sooner these public looters become rich we treat them with reverence and in many ways condoning the rot among us. Stories of how so and so had acquired illicit wealth, become instantly major talking points of national pride and jubilation instead of ridicule!
When a leader dies we overlook his transgressions which are plethora and waste a lot of time deifying the dead as if he was the blameless deity! Especially during obsequies gathering, our moral rot tends to be passim! In our twisted minds, the dead are godly and they were wrongly accused during their short stay on the earth. How naive and hypocritical have we become?
Since we have chosen injustice instead of justice then we should also be contented with lawlessness as a way of living however disgusting that is mob-justice, I mean
Unaccountable leadership foments mob justice.
Our legal system is structured in such a way our leaders are; in practical terms, above the law! Where in our constitutional dispensation we have laid down a clear benchmark for our public servants such as the qualifications of being an MP but we overlook such constitutional imperatives just to eat our daily bread!
In almost every-way, our bellies have become our God! If we are not in love with injustice how do we exculpate ourselves when a convicted criminal like Andrew Chenge could still be serving in our parliament? The message is abundantly loud and clear that the law serves the powerful but not the rank and file in our society.
In Chenges specific case, the accused had admitted and willingly accepted to serve a three year sentence through an alternative penalty of paying a Tshs 700, 000/= in lieu of serving behind bars. We have laid clear constitutional imperatives that no one can ascend to the Augusta House only if he is not a convicted criminal of more than a year. Surely, Mr. Chenge lost his parliamentary seat on the day he paid that fine ensuing from a conviction of traffic felonies.
Another leader who was treated favourably by our law enforcing bodies was the then R.C for Tabora Mr. Ukiwaona Ditopile Mizuzuri, now deceased. The guy had murdered a Daladala bus driver with a pistol following a heated altercation. Under our laws, murder charges are not bailable but the police manouvred to downgrade the charge sheet to manslaughter which is bailable so the big man could be enjoying his freedom as he awaits judgment of his convoluted misdemeanors.
We will never know how the judiciary would have settled the case because God had seen enough of this injustice and took the accused away. But again, here we were witnesses to those in positions of power being treated differently from the average guy on the street. The big question in Ditopiles case was how did the police concluded that that was a case of reckless disregard of human life and not intentional murder? We have to remember no police was an eye witness so their hollow observations must have been to ingratiate and placate the rulers of the day.
During the hearing of criminal case against Basil Pesambili Mramba and his allegedly co-conspirators we had a former president Ben Mkapa who mustered the audacity to depone under oath that his government had approved the purchase of controversial building in Italy for our foreign office use! When the highest ranking public official divulged that his government had intentionally flouted the procurement act but no DPP office could investigate whether a former president had committed criminal acts during his heydays in office then we know the law serves the powerful not everybody as it is supposed to!
The impartiality before the hands of justice were also tested and found wanting in Richmond/Dowans saga, the international tribunal established beyond reasonable doubt the then Premier Edward Lowassa appointed GNT - i.e Government Negotiating Team - was offensive to the procurement act but went on to justify it by arguing if the government had condoned those improprieties the victims of circumstances in Dowans should not be needlessly punished!
The issue there remains our law enforcement agencies such as Takukuru via its top Boss David Hosea had issued a public statement clearing those behind the Richmondgate/Dowansgate speciously claiming they had operated within the ambits of the law something they did not! There were recommendations from the Augusta House: a number of heads behind the scandal ought to be rolling let alone charged in a court of law but the government either procrastinated or prevaricated and today no senior government official has ever been implicated, tried or jailed over Richmond/Dowans malfeance!
In both the Mkapa and Dowans tragic spectacle we learn that public official conspiracies to break the law are not criminal acts while a number of court decisions touching on rights and privileges of the needy vividly indicate it is now trite law that conspiracies to offend the law are punishable under our judicial system.
Mob justice confirms lack of faith with our governance.
Yesterday top government officials in Mwanza led by JKs written eulogy squandered an opportunity to address the causes and effects of mob justice as they blamed it for the loss of life of one of their own! No government official had the time or the empathy even to wish well the family of a young boy whose dreams were cut short by a CCM stalwarts gun inflicted wound that proved fatal to end such a precocious life! Clearly, our leaders view and perceive their lives are of more value than ours!
No wonder in justifying expenditure of Treasury monies on overseas medical treatments to our leaders during medical doctors strike, JK unleashed a Broadway statement which can be contextualized as .without receiving overseas medical treatment our leaders would die! But JK is amnesiac of the truth because we took Nyerere to St. Thomas Hospital in London, UK; to what Mkapa later had erroneously referred that if he had not done that we would not have understood him! How fallacious that kind of thinking is, and the less I talk about it the better?
The good news, Nyerere came back in a body bag and overseas medical treatment did not save his poor life. Paradoxically, as I am penning this article down JK is in US attending to a medical tourism excursion hoping, like Mkapa in Nyereres case, to salvage his poor life.
Running away from the effects of policy decisions has produced an insular leadership.
We have a leadership that is so divorced to the effects of the policies it is generating no wonder it has become extremely insular from the truth and justice. As our leaders are running away from the poorly cooked policies, through accessing overseas social services on our payroll, they are churning out on daily basis that leadesrhip has lost the legitimacy to lead.
We humbly asked our colonial rulers to leave us alone not because we were better to manage our own destiny than them but because we believed that we were sole targets affected by governance decisions.
So we deeply felt we were able to provide a more caring and sensitive leadership to ourselves but that pretentious aura of home grown leadership is gone possibly forever.
Do we still have a moral argument to convince future mob justice seekers that the law is for them if they can exercise restraint and patience under these ominous onuses? The answer to that question remains a big NO at least for now .