Court sets free 52 Ponda followers

                                                        Muslim cleric Sheikh Ponda Issa Ponda

Dar es Salaam. The High Court yesterday set free 52 followers of Muslim cleric Sheikh Ponda Issa Ponda, who have been serving a one-year jail term.

They were sentenced by the Kisutu Resident Magistrate’s Court in March 21, this year, to three years imprisonment after being convicted with conspiracy, unlawful assembly and rioting.

The punishment ran co-currently, resulting to the accused serving only one year in jail.

However, judge Salvatory Bongole set free the prisoners yesterday after being satisfied that the punishment given to them was not correct, according to the offence they stood charged with.

The decision by the High Court followed an appeal filed by the alleged supporters of the secretary general of the Council of Islamic Organisations.

They asked the Court to quash and set aside both conviction and sentence on the ground that the trial magistrate erred on a number of facts in convicting them on three criminal charges and sentencing them to serve a one-year jail term for each count.

In his judgment, the Judge dismissed the conviction and one-year jail term for the first offence of conspiracy.

According to the judge, because the accused have been convicted with unlawful assembly and rioting - which are substantive counts - the offence of conspiracy collapsed automatically.

“You were given two punishments for one offence,” said the judge.

Concerning the remaining two counts of illegal assembly and rioting, the judge ruled that after going through evidence, he was satisfied that the prosecution evidence proved beyond reasonable doubt that the accused committed the offence.

However, the judge agreed with the defense counsel that the Act which convicted them was not followed in meting the punishment.

The judge elaborated that the followers were charged with disobeying a lawful order given by the Police that prohibited them from rioting.source the Citizen

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Tanzania wants China to refurbish Tazara railway

The railway link between Dar es Salaam and Lusaka, which was established in the early- to mid-1970s, then financed and built by the Chinese government, has for long been ailing as a result of poor maintenance and management problems. The line, which is over 1,860 kilometers long, covers some of Africa’s most challenging terrain but it was the lack of rolling stock and locomotives combined with regular line outages which have reduced the initial cargo volumes considerably in recent years, causing Zambia to increasingly use their rail links with South Africa to have reliable access to a deep sea port. The government-owned Chinese Civil Engineering Construction Corporation has now reportedly offered to refurbish the line, in phases, when meeting the Tanzanian Prime Minister Mizengo Pinda during a recent visit to Beijing.

A first section due for overhaul, once the two governments have agreed and signed the relevant agreements, will be the stretch from Dar es Salaam to Morogoro before thereafter the second section from Morogoro to Dodoma will be tackled. The TAZARA Railways is operating both cargo and passenger trains and has in the early years after the launch in 1976 provided a crucial link between Zambia and Tanzania, giving the former access to the Indian Ocean for exports and imports alike while for Tanzania it provided a vital domestic transport axis across the entire country to the border with Zambia.  source tal Domestic and tourism transport

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Kenya, Uganda and Rwanda meet again

Nairobi/Dar es Salaam. The heads of state of Kenya, Rwanda and Uganda are scheduled to meet later this month in Kigali amid growing concerns about Tanzania’s apparent isolation by the “coalition of the willing”.

Rwandan President Paul Kagame will host his Kenyan and Ugandan counterparts, Mr Uhuru Kenyatta and Mr Yoweri Museveni, respectively, on October 28 and 29 to discuss joint infrastructure projects, The Citizen has reliably learnt.

On the agenda will be the planned Mombasa-Kampala-Kigali standard-gauge railway, an oil pipeline connecting the three countries, an oil refinery and construction of a modern port in Lamu, Kenya. It was reported last weekend that divisions within the East African Community (EAC) had deepened after Burundi said it was not party to the “coalition of the willing” that has left Tanzania out.

Some prominent government and business leaders have said Tanzania has been increasingly isolated by Kenya, Uganda and Rwanda, whose leaders have met on a number of occasions in recent months.

EAC Secretary-General Richard Sezibera said in Nairobi yesterday that he was not aware that Tanzania had been sidelined or isolated from the regional integration process.

He said alliances among some EAC partner states that excluded Tanzania were not proof that the largest country in the bloc was being systematically isolated by its partners.

“From the secretariat point of view, we are not aware. I can’t say if Tanzania has been sidelined or is a reluctant partner in the bloc,” he told reporters on the sidelines of the EAC Secretary-General’s Forum.

Dr Sezibera was pressed by journalists to explain recent events on economic integration issues from which Tanzania was excluded and whether they did not confirm that the country was being eased out of the integration process.

The EAC boss said it was not true that Tanzania was a reluctant partner in the bloc as claimed in some quarters. Allegations that the country is delaying EAC programmes were repeated again yesterday during the forum, which attracted representatives from civil society organisations and the private sector in the region.

“If the implementation of the EAC activities is used as a yardstick, then all countries are guilty,” Dr Sezibera said. He added that it could not be claimed that Tanzania was paying lip service to EAC aspirations by differing with its partners on issues such as the use of national IDs as valid travel documents.

“The Treaty is very clear. No partner state can be sidelined. You know we operate on the principle of subsidiarity and variable geometry in which every country is allowed enough room for internal consultations on key decisions,” he said.

He added, however, that the Tanzanian authorities were “more competent” to explain if the country was being sidelined because the matter had not been officially brought to the attention of the Arusha-based Secretariat. The Minister for EAC Cooperation, Mr Samuel Sitta, said recently that the government was concerned by the way Kenya, Rwanda and Uganda were sidelining Tanzania in some key regional projects.

source The Citizen

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194 illegal immigrants declared stateless citizens

 Purported countries of origin rejected them

                                                       Purported countries of origin rejected them

The commander of the operation to weed out illegal immigrants,Assistant Commissioner of Police, Simon Sirro disclosed the figure in Dar es Salaam yesterday when briefing journalists of the operation dubbed “Kimbunga”.

He said: “We have declared them stateless citizens,” he said, adding: “The group is waiting for government action.”

ACP Sirro said in the first phase of the operation which ended on Friday at least 12,704 illegal immigrants were netted, but he added that the lack of national identities was the main bottleneck in netting illegal immigrants.

He said although some success has been registered in implementation of the presidential order, his team faced difficulties in tracking illegal immigrants because of the lack of national IDs.

“It is not easy to identify illegal immigrants in the absence of the national identities. Even after deporting the illegal immigrants, others found their way back due to inadequate security at the country’s porous borders,” he noted.

He also said that there were instances of malice whereby neighbours reported to the authorities about the existence of illegal immigrants in their midst “only for us to find out that they were Tanzanians.”
The first phase of the operation started on September 6, this year, after two weeks of grace period given by the government.

He said it is important that the government addresses such challenges so as to enable the force work more efficiently.

Out of the 12,704 who fell into the dragnet, 3,448 were Rwandese, 6125 Burundians, 2,496 Ugandans, 589 Congolese and 44 Somalis.

He said 1,852 suspected illegal immigrants were set free, while 2,286 are being questioned to establish their residential status. According to Sirro the operation also netted 222 suspected armed robbers and 23 suspected poachers.

Police also recovered 10 hand grenades, 61 guns including five sub-machine guns and 665 rounds of ammunition.

The second phase of operation Kimbunga to smoke out illegal immigrants started yesterday according to Sirro.

The operation was launched to solely sweep out illegal immigrants in three regions, Geita, Kagera and Kigoma after expiry of the two-week deadline given to illegal immigrants to leave voluntarily following President Jakaya Kikwete’s order. source the Guardian.

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Israel steps in as Nairobi death toll hits 69

Nairobi. Kenyan troops backed by Israeli forces battled yesterday to end a siege in an upmarket shopping mall and free hostages held by Somali militants in an attack that has so far killed 69 people.

Sporadic gunfire could be heard as Kenyan security officials said they were attempting to kill or capture the remaining attackers and end the 26 hour-long bloodbath at the Westgate mall.

“The Israelis have just entered and they are rescuing the hostages and the injured,” a Kenyan security source told AFP. The Israeli foreign ministry refused to confirm or deny its forces were involved.

Somalia’s Al Qaeda-inspired Shabaab rebels said the carnage at the part Israeli-owned complex was in retaliation of Kenya’s military intervention in Somalia, where African Union troops are battling the Islamists.

Interior minister Joseph Ole Lenku said 69 people were confirmed dead, while the Red Cross has estimated the number of injured at around 200.

Lenku said there were still between 10 to 15 gunmen in the shopping centre. “We believe there are some innocent people in the building, that is why the operation is delicate.”

Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta had said in a televised address to the nation late Saturday that he had lost family members in the attack.

“Let me make it clear. We shall hunt down the perpetrators wherever they run to. We shall get them. We shall punish them for this heinous crime,” he vowed.

The Westgate mall is popular with wealthy Kenyans and expatriates, and was packed with around 1,000 shoppers when the gunmen marched in at midday Saturday, tossed grenades and sprayed automatic gunfire at terrified people.

Security agencies have long feared that the shopping centre could be targeted by Al Qaeda-linked groups.

The attack was the worst in Nairobi since an Al-Qaeda bombing at the US embassy killed more than 200 people in 1998.

After a day and night of sometimes ferocious gun battles, security sources said police and soldiers had finally “pinned down” the gunmen. The Kenyan Red Cross appealed for blood donations and authorities urged residents to steer clear of the area. “We are still battling with the attackers and our forces have managed to maroon the attackers on one of the floors,” said Kenyan military spokesman Colonel Cyrus Oguna. “We hope to bring this to an end today.”

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