Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Natural Resources
and Tourism Gaudence Milanzi
A cloud of controversy surrounds the recent arrest of tourists from the United States in connection with illegal possession of a government trophy.
Jon and Linda Grant, a couple from Foster City, California, claimed to have endured a corrupt system to gain freedom from their mess after their arrest at Kilimanjaro International Airport (KIA) while leaving Tanzania for possessing a hand-carved giraffe bone which they claim was purchased while on a tour in South Africa.
In an interview with the Daily Journal from their home in California, the couple said it cost them $70,000 (over Sh152million) to navigate a corrupt court system to make it home.
While travelling through Africa, the retired dentist and his wife were thrown into jail and charged with poaching after they purchased what they thought, and asked multiple times to ensure, was a legal piece of artwork made out of a giraffe bone.But the intricately engraved 18-inch bone bought at a souvenir shop within a wildlife refuge ultimately had the unsuspecting couple each facing a 20-year sentence and $150,000 fine for poaching, as Tanzania laws provide.
Before they visited the country, the couple was in South Africa where they allegedly visited a gift shop and bought the trophy.
According to the couple, a store clerk at the shop assured them that the bone was legal to possess and that they wouldn't have any problems going through customs.
Ten days later, the Grants tried to leave Tanzania; however, airport security saw the souvenir in their bag and called anti-poaching officials.
The couple was arrested for poaching and carted off to police remand and later to a prison.
“That’s when the nightmare began… that was very, very scary. We were in with real criminals just lined up in the booking area," said Jon Grant, a retired dentist.
"You're just so exhausted, so tired you just go where they tell you to go," added Linda.
Despite other countries and customs agents allowing them to travel with it, the couple say authorities at KIA accused them of killing a giraffe, cutting off its leg, then intricately engraving it within a matter of days.
Thereafter, the officials would confiscate their passports while their other belongings were taken away before being sent to remand and eventually to prison.
“I don’t even think I have the appropriate words to describe the fear,” Linda Grant recalled, later noting that even embassy officials and Tanzanian tour guides couldn’t believe the couple was being charged. “Everyone realized that this is the most trumped-up charge on Earth, but we got caught up in this [corrupt] system.”
Their tour company tried to intervene and eventually got the head of a Tanzanian Association of Tour Operators (TATO) to intervene in the matter where thousands of dollars were shuffled among magistrates and prosecutors to move up court dates and, after three days being locked up, the couple was able to be bail out.
The couple claims that it cost them more than $70,000 to find their way out of the country.
According to Grant, he would end up paying thousands of dollars to bribe a magistrate and other officials to get the charges reduced and to get an earlier court hearing.
Grant was also able to contact a Foster City council member who called Peninsula Congress woman Jackie Speier.
The Congresswoman then assured the couple that she intended to meet with the Tanzanian ambassador to discuss the case and corruption, with the hope that other Americans were not targeted.
When reached for comment, Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Natural Resources and Tourism Gaudence Milanzi confirmed the incident. He however refuted claims that the tourists went through a corrupt system.
“It is true that they were arrested by our officials at KIA and made to pay $70,000, but they did not bribe anyone,” said Major General Milanzi.
In his interview with The Guardian yesterday, Milanzi said the Grants were arrested at KIA for being in possession of a trophy they claimed to have purchased from South Africa but they didn’t have any receipt to authenticate their claim.
“If they had truly bought it from South Africa, then there should have been a declaration to substantiate that,” he said.
An official with TATO, Fazal Hassan Ally, also faulted the couple for tarnishing the country’s image, saying the Grants were at fault for not having import and export documents while entering and leaving the country with the trophy.
Fazal, who claims to have played a role in bailing the couple, confided to The Guardian that the tourists had not bribed anyone, and in fact, they had used their own credit cards to pay while struggling to leave the country.
“The couple only used us as their sureties but all the payments were legal and were made through their credit cards,” said Fazal.
According to Fazal, the couple was touring some destinations courtesy of Ranger Safaris Company.
A Business Development Manager with Kilimanjaro Airports Development Company (Kadco) Christine Mwakatobe confirmed the incident but did not wish to go into details, saying she was not authorized to speak to the media.
SOURCE: THE GUARDIAN
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