By JENERALI ULIMWENGU

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There must be someone somewhere tring to make sense of what is happening around us these days.

You only have to take into consideration a number of things going on here to realise that there is a jinx going round in our country and we are increasingly becoming unable to put our affairs on rails whose destination we can hope to at least guess.

Let us look into one of the issues that has come to dominate the news cycles of Tanzania, at least the social media cycles, since the so-called mainstream media seems to have been effectively neutered.

Take the case of a certain young man by the name of Deus Soka, who has apparently gone missing for about a month now.

I understand this is a young man in his twenties who, in these past few weeks, has become a reminder of what many Tanzanians have come to dread: the phenomenon of people just disappearing from wherever they are supposed to be, and there being no proper information regarding them.

Read: ULIMWENGU: Somebody tell our leaders that to lead is also to listen, to serve

Now, the “Soka” story has a particular context. A short while ago, a prominent, and audible lawyer, Mwabukusi, took over the leadership of the national Bar associalition — the Tanganyika Law Society, TLS — and upon assuming that office showed what he was intending to do with his new responsibilities at the help of the Bar.

Mwabukusi made it clear he was not going to mince words in matters where he believes he has the right, and duty, to speak out against such as the rampant human rights abuses committed in the country, mainy by the authorities, and that he was willing to call out anyone worth calling out on these cases which are becoming more and more common in the country.

Mwabukusi publicly read more than 80 names of individuals who had gone missing and whose families, colleagues and friends were clamouring for.

There has been little indication that the authorities are even bothered about these reports, and the few statements made by those who should be doing something generally show a nonchalant attitude to the whole thing. It is as if it is unimportant.

It becomes even more complex when it is easy to not have a focus of where we need to direct our efforts with the view to understanding just what is happening to us.

We could easily say that these events are being orchestrated by the authorities’ desire to control the political trends during these upcoming elections at local government level, and the general elections next year.

That line might be credible, because it is clear that President Samia and her party are hell-bent on winning this year’s local elections and next year’s general elections, and it looks like the whole government machinery is willing to bend over backwards to do her bidding, and if that means a few people being deprived of their freedom, it may not seem like a big matter to some people in their offices.

Read: ULIMWENGU: Who is this raining on Samia’s parade? We can only but guess

Recently we saw what the authorities were willing to do against the Maasai in Arusha, and people in authority let matters be, until the Maasai staged a very visible demonstration that went around the world in pictures taken by the very tourists whose trips had been disrupted by the picketing Maasai, before Samia sent in her ministers to “assure” the Maasai that their grievances would be taken on board.

Despite the “assurances” there can be no guarantee that these will be honoured, simply because we have run out of honest brokers.

In this very case of the Maasai, something funny happened when some smart aleck contrived to have a case opened in a local court in Arusha, purporting to support the Maasai in their claims against their eviction, and apparently the case was “won” by the Maasai, only for it to become clear that the person in whose name the case was filed, did not even know about the case!

This was an interesting case — even if apparently fictitious — because the swiftness with which the case was expedited showed that the slow wheels of justice can sometimes acquire wings to effect decisions desired by those in authority! In such circumstances, who can have faith in whatever is being said by the people in power, when it looks like they could never tell the truth to save their own lives?

Back to the Soka issue, one hopes this young man is still alive somewhere, but it could be only a pious hope.

More than five years ago, another young man — his name was Ben Saanane — went missing after he had publicly accused President John Magufuli of misconduct regarding his PhD. The man has not been heard of to this day, presumed dead.

Could this also be the fate of the young man Soka, someone about whom there has been so much concern expressed, and about whom the authorities have kept an ear-shattering silence?

In another case, one Twaha Kombo went missing, and after 29 days the police eventually admitted they had him: his relatives found him badly beaten.

I have the duty to bring these matters to the attention of the world, especially because there are people out there who can not believe that the Tanzanian government is capable of these atrocities. Well, it is.

Ulimwengu is now on YouTube via jeneralionline tv. E-mail: [email protected]