Kibanda`s misery props up political mandarins eyeing 2015 – shamefully!

BY EDITOR

17th March 2013

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Editorial Cartoon

Plenty of politicking is in midair, salvos being thrown left, right and centre concerning the rapt and torture of New Habari Corporation group managing editor Absalom Kibanda, in what reminds one of how vultures descend on a carcass.

Suddenly, nearly everyone knows who in the political labyrinth of ruling party and opposition must have the most reason to hurt the often daring editor, and makes such hunches loud and clear -- without even the slightest proof of such imagination to accompany the banner headlines – such as merely to say that someone wasn’t happy he joined that newspaper group, or that sort of thing.

To add insult to injury, the government or rather the police and security establishment, come up and push opinion in one direction of suspicion, arguably the least plausible, of his own friends in opposition who own the newspaper in which he worked, raising it to a noticeable stakeholder in the field.

Largely for that reason, he was recognized by his peers by being elected the chairman of the Tanzania Editors’ Forum, and it is unconvincing to say the least, that merely shifting from one bureau premises to another would invite ferocity and venom from his old colleagues, at least since his newspaper office and their club premises are next door.

The latest whirlwind around CHADEMA’s security chief Wilfred Lwakatare more or less helps push suspicion in an unlikely direction, and when this is encouraged by quarters with plenty to hide on what took place, there isn’t much complexity on why this impression is needed.

In the way things are going, the major issues that could lead to the proper perpetrator start being forgotten; instead, there is concern as to the way a CHADEMA official was arrested and sequestrated. And, ironically this comes in the wake of a police clean-up of officials thrusting cases on innocents, for whatever reason -- at times for cash, or even for politics.

The misfortune visiting upon one of the country’s leading editors is patterned on the troubles that rained upon the leader of the doctors’ strike, Dr Steven Ulimboka, and the former TanzaniaDaima editor has a case in court that a column he published called for a strike – by the military.

That should provide plenty of reason for conjecture; for people to think someone ‘wished’ to strike him down, so that nobody else repeats that kind of suggestion, insinuation or vow – because it’s damaging to political stability if it reaches unstable ears.

Scarcely any other line of inquiry is substantive enough, and much of it is wishful thinking for 2015 fuel. It is evident that there are dangers of pursuing this line of inquiry too closely, since this was conducted by MwanaHalisi twice or thrice, and responsible authorities felt ‘enough is enough,’ and put it to the cooler. Earlier, the ‘stakeholders’ had attempted to scare its editors with yet unproven acid-throwing warnings.

So nobody shall be blamed if they just wait for authorities to clear the picture, or at least for the savaged editor to get out of bed and give his version of things to a fuller account. Even then, he shall also have to be careful.

What should be avoided is to seek out weak people, pin the blame on them – and laugh it off – which is partially what is happening both at official and unofficial levels: it becomes hard to discern where comedy stops and tragedy starts; whether we’re making fun of what happened to Kibanda, or simply relishing that it has given us something to talk about.

Without showing due concern for what happened -- and, indeed, what forces could have conceivably carried it out -- people start saying, “so and so doesn’t like Kibanda, so he did it.”

In the final analysis, this makes their pursuits a bit suspect, but we believe there’s yet enough room for a credible probe to stay afloat.

SOURCE: GUARDIAN ON SUNDAY