The Citizen (Dar es Salaam)
Felix Mwera and Mkinga Mkinga
15 May 2008
Tarime — Five people are feared to have been killed and more than 100 homes and 20 granaries torched as the inter-clan clashes that broke out on Tuesday night in Tarime District intensified yesterday.
According to eyewitnesses, who spoke to reporters in Sirari Township, two bodies were recovered yesterday morning, while the bodies of three other people, also believed to have been killed in the fighting, were still missing.
The clashes were apparent revenge attacks involving the warring Wanchari and Warenchoka clans of the Kuria community in Mara Region.
However, Mara Regional Police Commander David Saibulu told The Citizen by telephone that though they had heard about the killings, they could not immediately confirm the number of casualties.
"There are reports of some people having been killed in the fighting but up to now we can't say anything until we confirm by reaching the scene," he said.
However, he disputed the number of houses burnt on Tuesday night, insisting that it was only 30 houses and 20 granaries. But local leaders, who asked not to be named, put the number at more than 120 houses. The villages affected were Kiongera, Nyamuhunda and Kubiterere.
The latest round of fighting between the clans, which have been at war since August 2001, broke out after armed militias believed to be from Wanchari clan destroyed about 100 acres of maize farms on Monday.
As tension mounted in the area, the regional authorities closed two schools. The students of Mwema Secondary School and Kubiterere Primary School were sent home immediately.
A contingent of security personnel was then sent to Kubiterere, Kiongera and Nyamuhunda villages to quell the fighting.
Tarime MP Chacha Zakayo Wangwe of Chadema, speaking from his constituency, accused police of not acting swiftly enough. He said they had failed to stamp out the known practices that had sparked the fighting.
"The top police leadership should immediately come to the aid of the people of Kuria by posting here only those capable of fighting insecurity and should not treat all the local people like criminals," said Mr Wangwe.
The MP called for calm among the warring clans, urging them to ensure that security in their localities was not undermined by any criminal acts.
Mr Wangwe said: "Police have failed to rise to the occasion as they engage in other businesses, avoiding their core responsibility."
The MP spoke as the regional defence and security team led by the Regional Commissioner, Colonel (Rtd) Issa Machibya, held a peace meeting yesterday morning in Kubiterere village.
But Mr Saibulu said the meeting had been unsuccessful due to poor attendance by local leaders.
"It is sad that while the meeting was for the local community, we only found a few leaders. The rest of the people reportedly disappeared into the hills," the police boss said.
He said their mission had been to establish the real cause of the fighting from the people themselves. He said a contingent of the Field Force Unit had been sent in to patrol the violence-prone zones.
"My people are, however, facing difficulties in their bid to stop the clashes as people mount surprise raids in the night."
The clashes broke out just two days after Prime Minister Mizengo Pinda told editors at a forum in Dar es Salaam that the Government was investigating the causes of the never-ending fighting among the Kuria clans.
He told the editors on Monday that there was need to appoint a team of sociologists to the ground and conduct research to establish the real cause of the clashes.
"We, in the Government, do not have an immediate solution to these ethnic conflicts because the fighting always involves people of the same ethnic background," Mr Pinda said.
He said that previously, it was thought that traditional councils could be the right organs to handle cases arising from such conflicts, but some people had opposed it.
Tarime District has become notorious for ethnic clashes believed to be caused by land disputes and cattle rustling.
In the early 1980s, the clashes reached an alarming stage when one local chief put some villages under siege, declaring the area part of the Republic of Kenya.
The Government then deployed armed policemen who camped there for about a month to restore peace.
Between 1985 and 1995, the area remained calm, though pockets of clashes were reported between some clans.
But since 2001, the two clans have been fighting almost every year, reportedly at the instigation of some local warlords.
The 2001 clashes were the worst during the past decade, with dozens killed, and for the first time, Tanzanians having to flee to Kenya and live in refugee camps for three months.
The Government then deployed armed policemen to restore law and order the region. But a year later the clashes erupted again and have been the order of the day.
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