The cobras of Iringa

THE notion of job creation and lust for money by the city militia in the form of ‘self-employment’ is now becoming a nuisance to city dwellers.

By Elias Mhegera, May 2010

The Tanzanian government has in many occasions boasted that it has created more than one million jobs which was part of the promises that President Jakaya Kiwete made during his presidential campaigns in 2005.

On Thursday Last week I was saddened by an event when one traveler from Dar es Salaam to Mbeya whom we happened to board the same bus, fallen prey of the city militia.

The ruthless militia snatched from him the little remaining pocket money that he had saved for water and lunch during his long journey back home.

In fact the city militias have now created jobs for themselves by grabbing whatever they want after any of their victims is under their total control.

By mistreating the travelers and the street hawkers ‘marching guys’ commonly known as ‘machinga’ the militia are going against the zeal of job creation by the Kikwete’s government.




This is because the employing sector is the non formal according to records within the ministry of labour. One million jobs creation was what I reported last year after being misled by the government.

Coincidently I was parroting the statement that was issued to the media by the Minister of Labour, Employment and Youth Development Prof Juma Kapuya.

I few days I later one veteran editor and commentator Karl Lyimo asked me whether what I really meant was job creation, or the media misinformed the public due to a failure to grasp the meaning of the term ‘job creation’.

The argument from the editor was that the Tanzanian government is incapable of creating one million jobs within the span of time that Kapuya had claimed confidently before journalists.

So this gave me another assignment, which is to counter-check the authenticity of Kapuya’s statement. So I had to visit Dr. Godias Kahyarara from the University of Dar es Salaam, for clarification.

Dr Kyaharara concurred with the editor, Lyimo that Kapuya misled journalists unless what he meant was something else. He claimed that even advanced countries like the United States of America can not create such a big amount of jobs within such a short prescribed time.

Therefore this sent me back to Kapuya’s ministry in order to verify their statistics, now I had to be directed to visit the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), which I actually did.

The NBS director was cooperative, and she managed to give me some literature for future references, she admitted that it was impossible (technically) for the government to create such jobs within such a short time,

But what the government did was to create conducive environment for the non-formal sector to expand leading to self employment of more than one million people!. But that she could not state openly to the media in order to avoid further confusion.

In this particular case I do not know whether I should praise the government for creating jobs to the ambitious youths who turn into street hawkers after failing to get any suitable source of income.

In order to get fund from genuine sources, the guys now are in the streets where their bitter enemy is the city militias. However there is job creation in a way through their employment, as they do behave like the ‘ruga-ruga’ type that used to exist during the colonial era in Tanganyika.

The militia whose duty is to harass the ‘machingas’ in the city, this time they had their victims including (my travel mate) pay ten thousand shillings each after they were caught urinating nearby the Ubungo Bus Terminal.

Narrating the story a youngster in his early twenties admitted that he was caught by the militia before he had finished his ‘business’. They demanded him to pay ten thousand otherwise he will end up in the court.

“I pleaded with them to take at least two thousand shillings, so that I remain with some pocket money, but they were adamant I eventually ended paying them five thousands so that I could catch up with my bus” he lamented.

So the bad omen that started with the city militia followed him in the bus, he had estimated that he will pay 20 thousands instead of 22, as this is what he had paid in his journey to Dar es Salaam from Mbeya about three previous days.

As we were approaching Kibaha he was reminded by the bus conductor that he pays the bus fare in full else he finds himself dropped at the Kibaha bus stand.

He could not hold the tears back, a sign of hopelessness, so I came to his rescue I paid the disputed two thousands shillings. But this also told me he would have travelled the whole day without quenching his thirst or even having lunch.

So I had to double my budget in rescue of the besieged young guy. I paid for all the remaining of his expenses up to Mbeya. At one point in our journey he asked me kindly, are you a pastor? I answered no; it was just a matter of rational thinking that I chose to assist you.

But one interesting thing along the way it was the unique brand of Iringa cobras. It was after we had taken our lunch at Al-Jazeera Restaurant a short distance after Ruaha after I came to know of the man-cobra found only in Tanzania probably.

I was sitting just behind the driver’s seat, and there was so much talk of the cobras between the driver and his crews. I had taken it to the ordinary type of snakes that we all know.

But it was at some point when one of the crows showed his driver one big ‘cobra’ that was lying in a nearby bush, I was fortunate to see that man-cobra!.

I could not hold it I asked the bus crews why they nicknamed the traffic police the bad name of cobra, and that is when I got the whole story of the cobras.

While a bus mechanic was narrating the story the driver took a receipt where after attending the court he was fined only five thousand shillings, instead of the fifty thousand which the traffic police had demanded when they caught him due to over speeding.

“We call them cobras because they hide in bushes with their speed detectors directed to us just like the cobra will do when hunting a goat in the bushes” said the driver amid a big laughter.

The real cobra snakes are after meat; these are after money, so they are all cobras, because even the Inspector General of Police is not aware of what is happening here.

The driver went into length complaining of notorious corruption acts along this way, he reminded of what befallen the Tanzania Broadcasting Corporation journalist Jerry Muro after he had exposed some traffic police who were taking bribes from passenger buses along the way.
END