Corruption in Morogoro

We are Tendekayi Guni and Elaine Baker, an engaged couple living in Dar es Salaam for a number of years.

Tendekayi is a Zimbabwean citizen who has invested here in Tanzania. He and Tanzanian business partner Fredrick Mbuya own and manage a registered company called Afri Roots Ltd, involved in outdoor sport and recreation services.

A guest from the UK, called Stefan Meigh of an organisation called Action Challenge, wished to start a program whereby participants raise money for Tanzanian charities by cycling in Tanzania. He was cooperating with Afri Roots to research good cycling routes for the participants in Morogoro. This was the purpose of a trip to Morogoro in the company of Tendekayi and a driver.

At 8.30am on 17th November 2008 Tendekayi and Stefan were engaged in a discussion in the Acropol hotel. Two immigration officers approached them. One of the officers had previously stopped Tendekayi another time and knew he was Zimbabwean, and he had already seen a copy of Tendekayi’s residence permit that time. However, he wished to see it again. Unfortunately Tendekayi had accidentally left the copy of the permit which he usually travels with at home in Dar es Salaam, together with the original.

Tendekayi politely explained the situation and asked to be excused so he could continue with this important journey with his guest and later report to the relevant authorities. He also suggested they phone immigration in Dar es Salaam to verify he was a legal resident. Another alternative he suggested was that he could get a copy of the residence permit faxed to them. They said that only an original copy would suffice, despite the original being in Dar es Salaam and Tendekayi not having any convenient way of getting it to Morogoro. They phoned three other immigration officers to come to the hotel. Tendekayi again explained to the other immigration officers the situation.

Tendekayi and Stefan also requested to see identification cards of the immigration officers but they responded abruptly telling him he was rude to request ID and that they had no right to request ID. After strong insistence from Stefan, two of them did show their IDs and Stefan wrote the details down. The names on the IDs were Gerard Kihinga, ID number 00003297 and Aurelian Mhanje, ID number 00005315. Tendekayi also heard them referred to as Gerard and Mhanje during the day and these are the names used in the rest of this report. They then took Tendekayi to Msamvu immigration office.

The guest (Stefan) was dismayed at this interruption to his visit. He had an appointment with Faraja orphanage (to whom the sponsorship money was intended to be donated) so he visited it with the driver. They then came to the Msamvu immigration office to see how they could help Tendekayi. They then returned to Dar es Salaam, leaving Tendekayi in Morogoro.

At Msamvu the official Gerard opened a file and told Tendekayi he must produce the original residence permit in Morogoro by 4pm or else be put in police custody and face a court hearing the next day.

Tendekayi phoned Fredrick, his business partner, who tried to arrange for the original permit to be picked up from Tendekayi’s house in Dar es Salaam but unfortunately there was no one with keys to the room where the permit was except Elaine and a cleaner who was not contactable.

Tendekayi phoned Elaine who was in a meeting at University Computing Centre, where she works, with CDC (US Government PEPFAR HIV/AIDS aid program) at the time and could not take his call. When she saw his messages she requested a fax number to send a copy of the residence permit to, as she had a copy of it in her office. Tendekayi asked if a faxed copy would suffice and after lengthy discussion and pleading the immigration officers agreed. However Mhanje said that even if he got the fax and if the permit says “place of work” is Dar es Salaam then Tendekayi is breaking the law by being in Morogoro when his “place of work” is supposed to be Dar es Salaam. Gerard also threatened to get Tendekayi’s permit cancelled.

The first fax number given to Tendekayi was either not functional or not valid. Elaine also visited the university police station who inspected the copy of the permit and advised her to fax the copy of the permit to the immigration officials in Morogoro. After following up to get the second fax number, which was valid, Elaine faxed the copy and received a confirmation status report at 3.29pm from the fax machine self-labelled “Immigrations Moro” saying the fax had been received.

Tendekayi could hear the fax coming in on the fax machine nearby and saw the top of a permit coming through but the official Mhanje quickly grabbed the paper. Tendekayi asked if that is his faxed permit. An official quickly closed the door between Tendekayi and the fax machine. The immigration officers insisted they had not received the fax and said they were bringing Tendekayi to the police station.

Tendekayi phoned Frank, a long-standing good friend of ours who lives in Morogoro, to ask him to go to a secretarial shop which receives faxes so we could resend the fax there and Frank could bring the fax to the officials.

Elaine talked to the immigration officer Gerard via Tendekayi’s phone and politely asked him to check their fax machine for the permit. He said “Are you giving me orders?” and abruptly cut off the phone.

Tendekayi was taken to the police station by Mhanje, Gerard and another official. On the way he asked if he could pay a fine instead of being imprisoned. They stopped at a bar and asked for the payment. Tendekayi said he can only make the payment in their office and that he would need a receipt. They refused and continued to the police station.

Frank went to a local fax shop and Elaine faxed him a copy of the permit. Frank brought the copy of the permit to the police station and delivered it into the hands of the immigration official Mhanje in the presence of the police who also saw the faxed permit.

Despite now having a copy of the permit, the immigration officer Mhanje insisted to the police that they lock Tendekayi up in a cell. The police held Tendekayi’s phone while he was in the cell so he could not communicate.

Mhanje then took Frank out of the police station to “explain a way to get Tendekayi out”. Outside, Mhanje and Gerard said that Frank should bring Tsh 200,000 in two hours. Frank said he only had Tsh 50,000. They said that is not enough. Frank did not initially pay anything and his first priority was to bring Tendekayi some food and water which he did.

Meanwhile Elaine went to the immigration department in Dar es Salaam and explained the situation. They were sympathetic but said that as office hours were finished they could not communicate with the immigration officers in Morogoro.

Tendekayi was locked in an extremely small cell together with 5 others and later 7 others, some being held as rape and robbery suspects. The discussion between inmates in the cell included mention of one of the existing inmates being beaten by police and a previous maasai inmate suspected of cattle rustling having been beaten to death a few days before by police. The cell had a very small window and there was little air. It was extremely hot in the cell. There was a very strong smell of urine. There were large numbers of fleas/insects who were continually painfully biting all the inmates, including Tendekayi. After three hours in the cell Tendekayi began to feel ill and nauseous.

Frank had seen the terrible conditions that Tendekayi was in and therefore was obliged to find Tsh 200,000 to get him out. Frank was initially under the impression that this was bail money but then he was told to go to a bar where he met Gerard and Mhanje and he had to hand over the money without any receipt to Mhanje. He also had to hand them his Tembo ATM card as a guarantee that Tendekayi would report again to their office the next morning. The immigration officer who was driving a vehicle then made some phone calls and Tendekayi was then released between 8pm and 9pm, his phone and personal belongings were returned and he slept in a guest house.

The next morning Elaine went again to the immigration department in Dar es Salaam, and Mr Nombo there phoned the head of immigration in Morogoro, who denied any knowledge of a Tsh 200,000 fine or bail. Mr Nombo was very helpful and advised Elaine to write an official complaint to the Principal Commissioner for Immigration.

The same morning Tendekayi reported to the immigration office in Msamvu. Tendekayi asked for Frank’s Tembo ATM card back which he received back. He then asked for the Tsh 200,000, which he had thought was bail/security/bond to guarantee he would report back. Gerard and Mhanje denied that they had ever received Tsh 200,000. Tendekayi was released and travelled back to Dar es Salaam.

This incident involved extreme stress and worry and the waste of the entire working day of several people (Tendekayi, Elaine, Fredrick, Frank and several others who tried to help out from Dar es Salaam), Tendekayi’s health and safety being put in danger, a large amount of money being spent on phone calls and faxes, the jeopardising of an excellent development and charity fund raising opportunity for Morogoro region, and the loss of Tsh 200,000 to corrupt officials.