Dua la kuku halimpati mwewe

Kangas which are worn by poor women all the time, and by all women some of the time, were the original T shirt with a message. Around their borders they have slogans, proverbs exhortations etc, and are frequently chosen for the message rather than the design. Dua la kuku halimpati mwewe is a Swahili proverb which says something to the effect of " a hawk doesn't heed the prayer of a chicken."
For the last few months, a criminal case has been filling the Tanzanian newspapers, and is generally being seen as a barometer of whether the Kikwete government is serious about transparency, and even handedness. At the beginning of November, an ex-military officer and present Regional Commissioner, also one of the "good ol' boys" of the CCM the ruling party here, Ditopile Mzuzuri was arrested for murder.
I was given the following account by an eye witness a couple of days ago. She was in a dalladalla in the early evening. Dalladallas are minibuses which are the backbone of the public transportation system in Dar es Salaam. They are cheap, (200 shillings or 10p a journey), sometimes atrociously maintained and always appallingly driven. Everyone complains about them, but the city would grind to a halt without them.
A Prado pulled out in front of the dalladalla and the dalladalla nudged the spare tyre at the back. It seems to be common ground that no damage was caused. Both vehicles stopped. It intrigues me that in a city where drivers seem completely unaware that there are any rules of the road, let alone abide by them, the one thing they do seem to do is to remain where they are after any accident until the police arrive. The driver of the Prado came to remonstrate with the Dalladalla driver. Now, the essential job requirements for a dalladalla driver are (1) that he drives like a drunken one-eyed maniac, and (2) that he is voluably foul mouthed. I was told that the driver of the Prado was graphically informed just where he could go.
The passenger in the Prado – Dito as all the papers call him - then came to the dalladalla and said do you know who I am? The driver apparently told him where to go as well. The driver shut his driver's window; Ditopile pulled out a gun. He used it to hammer on the window, and suddenly there was a shot and the driver, Hasan Mbonde, was dead -shot in the head . My informant said that there was absolute panic, and people were leaving the bus through the windows, anyway they could find to get out; she could not remember how she did it - all she can remember is being outside and running. One of her friends was sitting at the front of the bus and was sprayed with the drivers blood
A mob gathered, and fortunately for Dito, the incident happened outside a military barracks and he was rescued before he suffered worse injuries than a broken arm. The gun has never been found. He handed himself into the police some two hours afterwards in which time he had spoken to the President. Kikwete was quick to claim afterwards that justice was the same for every Tanzanian, be he ever so mighty. The response from the man on the Tegete dalladalla is profound scepticism.
Dito was charged with murder and remanded in custody. In February, at the committal proceedings, the charge was reduced to manslaughter, understandable I suppose given the circumstances I have described, but only if you forget his military background and his familiarity with firearms One of the opposition parties has however started a private murder prosecution – which was not supported by the drivers’ family who are widely suspected to have been paid off. Manslaughter is bailable here, but bail was refused by the Resident magistrate. An application for bail was made in the High Court on March 8th, unopposed by the Prosecution, and he was bailed on his own recognisance of 30 million shillings(about 12,000 sterling) and two sureties for the same amount. His family and friends at court then turned on the press photographers(in the court environs) and started to beat them up, watched by the police who did nothing to intervene. The press - both kiswahili and English - have been incandescent; special pleading for their own lads, but I think they're right about the ruckus being a contempt of court. The judicial reaction? Huffing and puffing that the police had brought Dito into court using the judges' door. Nice to see that the priorities are right.
The interesting reaction has been from other prisoners on remand throughout the country. They immediately went on strike, short lived in most places, but only just called off in Dar. There have been constant denials that Dito has been treated in any way differently than any other accused person, but to say the case has got to committal stage within 4 months is, by Tz standards, expedited justice. Tz is the land of constant adjournments and it is not unknown for people to be remanded for up to 5 years before coming to trial. There seems to be no penalty on the Prosecution for failing to have their cases prepared. The strike consisted of men ( the women didn't join in) refusing to leave the prison vans at court until their demand (that the Minister of Justice came to the prison to hear their complaints) was met. There was tough talk at first, but there have been no cases of attempts to force people off the vans, and the remandees seem to have access to material and paint, so that their grievances were hung out of the windows of the vans for the waiting media to read and disseminate. The Minister agreed to meet the prisoners and they called off the strike. I suspect police/prison collusion with the remandees, because there is a general sense of special treatment for -shall we say the hawk if the common man is the chicken?
What will be interesting to see is whether, now Dito is out, there will be the same urgency to progress the case. I wouldn't hold your breath.