Created 05-09-16
Last edited 15-09-14

Lake Crime Stories

Outboard, panga's and spears

One day, Philemon was on his way sailing wood to Mwanza with a dhow when he was approached by an outboard propelled canoe. Its crew was armed with panga's (50 cm sword shaped hack knives) and spears. No guns. They came straight from the opposite side. Philemon was steering. He made a move to pretend making way for the canoe but suddenly steered back on collision course. After the collision Philemon's crew jumped down in the canoe and seized the robbers by throwing those in the water who had not been fallen in it already. The crew could not swim, held to the remains of their canoe and got in danger of drowning. Philemon's crew rescued them. Once on board, they explained their extensive armory by their own fear to get robbed. They were simply fishers. Their fishing gear had all sunk after the collision, they claimed. Without panga's and spears, but with outboard, they were put back in their damaged canoe to recover at home from the scary experience.

Tanzania Lake Police (1)

Another day Philemon was again with wood to Mwanza, anchored at Ukerewe peninsula waiting for wind, a police boat came aside. They claimed to come for tax payments.
Philemon: we paid all our taxes in Mwanza.
This is here Ukerewe, not Mwanza.
Ukerewe is not another country, we have paid.
Show us the papers.
We never carry our papers, come with us to Mwanza and we will show you.
Pay us our tax, now!

Police boarded the dhow and started to cut the lines binding the sail to the folmali (gaff) with a panga.
Why are you cutting our sail, if you seize it, why don't you untie it!
We take the sail now, you can come to our office to pay your tax and get your sail!

Police brought the sail to an office at the Ukerewe shore and left. The office was managed by a "friend" of Philemon. Philemon managed to get the sail from his "friend" for an amount equivalent to 5 dollar, whereas police had demanded 30 (corruption against corruption!). The "friend" would tell police the office had been attacked and the sail seized.

Philemon's crew repaired the sail and continued the journey to Mwanza.
After half a day they saw the Ukerewe police boat appearing far behind them. Their was a strong back wind and big waves.
Police caught up, told them this sail was "theirs", and Philemon and his crew had robbed a police office to steal it . They ordered to halt.
Philemon told them this was impossible in these waves.
Police rammed the dhow sideward, pointed guns and repeated the order.
Shoot me! Philemon said, standing up. I cannot do anything else on these waves and I have done nothing wrong.
Police decided to go for frontal intimidation: they moved ahead, and then turn straight to the dhow. Fast.
Philemon pretended to give way then suddenly steered back.
The police boat pierced the dhow's hull frontally but broke in the collision, and sunk.
No rescue this time. If only because the wind did not allow for it
Police was rescued by another Mwanza bound dhow behind. This dhow's cargo was lighter and caught up.
Though police had managed to retain their guns, there was no shooting on passing.

After everybody had arrived in Mwanza the Ukerewe police approached Philemon's dhow, which was offloading on another beach.
They accused Philemon of stealing a sail and trying to kill them. They would take him to court.
Go to court, Philemon told them. I will explain court how you behaved.
During this conversation Philemon's father, chief police officer of vehicle inspection in Mwanza, came to greet him.
Philemon did not raise the issue with his father, but one of the Ukerewe police robbers recognized the man, knew this man was police officer and owner of the dhow, and now realized Philemon was his son.
The police thugs disappeared. End of harassment. No court.

And,  its police having lost its boat, Ukerewe was safe for a few months..

How Philemon's father, Amos, succeeded to enter the Tanzanian Police Force and why he does not want his children to do the same

Philemon's father's family was herding and farming in the far country, still crowded with with wild animals, near the lake at Musoma. His brothers and sisters were sent to school but he had to stay home to keep the herds of the village, because he was the only one who could memorize the over 200 names of all cows and bulls and would immediately see whether one was missing. Fortunately the herd's drinking place was near the school were a teacher was ready to teach him during the two or three hours the cows were drinking and ruminating, as cows always do after drinking. The teacher included him in the classes exams and he was second.
Years passed. Erikana, Amos younger brother, passed the final exams of the secondary school and proudly came home with his certificate. Amos secretly took the certificate, went off to Mwanza, wandered through town in his traditional dress, a long shirt until the knees, a scarf around the neck, and slippers, and found a queue at the police office. These were applicants for police jobs. He joined them with his brothers certificate, introduced himself as Erikana and after serious interview was hired, given a police uniform, and trained. When, after a year, he came back to his family in his police uniform, he was the hero of the village. He returned the certificate to the real Erikana who took it, went to Tabora to become a building engineer.
A lot of anecdotes about Philemon's father Amos will in due time be inserted here but now we add one: at the time Amos had risen to the rank of chief vehicle inspector of Mwanza, an expensive truck with trailer was detected to have a defect that was considered to form a traffic offense.
"This is very wrong", Amos told the owner, a rich man, "you will have to bribe me".
The rich man came to Amos' office, hiding some witnesses behind the door to file a complaint about bribery afterwards. Philemon knows this story, because as a young boy, he happened to be in the office of his father at this very moment.
Amos said to the truck owner: "This is not what we agreed about, you came with five, I want nothing from you".
Philemon does not know how his father knew about this, but it turned out to be true.

Amos is retired now and does not want Philemon or any other of his children to become police. It is too dangerous nowadays. They are even giving money covered with chemicals to the ones who are asked for a bribe, then after paying it, special security police comes in to put your hands in a liquid that turns red as blood when you have touched the money. No, nowadays, becoming police is not advisable!

Money under the water-weed (story from Philemon)

One day, an  Indian shopkeeper went along the Mwanza lake shore to his bank to deposit cash. He held it in his left hand in a black plastic bag. Two Tanzanians came left and right of him, the left one greeted friendly, the right one slapped him in the face, then the left one took the plastic bag with the cash. It was only when the two started running that they realized many people were at their left side and a police canoe with a small outboard engine was in the lake at the right. They chose to run in the lake where there was a lot of water-weed. They ran in the weed an hid under it, only their noses out for breathing. Philemon, on his dhow, saw one of them, but not the other. He decided not to indicate the robber to the police "since they went to school to learn how to catch them and I wanted to see whether or not they could". It took a long time but then they caught one. He carried no money and claimed "just to be swimming". When he was told to come he asked humorously what was wrong with just swimming.
Police also had to laugh but said "you have to come, we suspect you, are you alone?".
The man claimed he was alone.
After another long period, in which Philemon from a distance saw them missing the second man from less than two meters, they finally spotted him.
This second man, had had more time under the weeds to prepare for questions and claimed that the weed blew over his fishnets last night and he was still looking for them. Also he carried no money. Both men were taken to police, but the money was not retrieved. At dusk, a large crowd entered the weeds to look for the money. The Indian called the police to report this. Police came with five men in civilian clothes and waited while watching everybody. The one who finally found the money bag had no clue how to move imperceptibly and was immediately attacked by other searchers. Police arrested the entire crowd.

Note: Many Indian shopkeepers in East African towns sport scars of old injuries on their faces

Money on the street  (story from Philemon)

One day an Indian shopkeeper was robbed of his cash on Kenyatta Street, Mwanza. But the bag broke and the money blew all over the tarmac. Immediately a screaming crowd concentrated. There was heavy fighting while everybody tried to fill his pockets. Others concentrated on emptying the pockets of others trying to get more, and pulling money out of the hands of people who had taken it from the street. As a result, many bills were torn into pieces: somewhere you would see a piece showing only a giraffe, or the president, or only a number. On the street side people behind tables where busy fitting fragments of bills together. Police arrived, blocked and closed in the entire fighting crowd and arrested everybody.

Note: Many Indian shopkeepers in East African towns sport scars of old injuries on their faces

A Street Seller

Ambulant street selling, walking around with goods for sale, got prohibited in most Tanzanian towns in 2005. Market plots were assigned for former street sellers to sit and wait for customers.  After prohibition, Mwanza police spotted a street seller. They told the man he should go to the market plot but he protested, said he was doing nothing wrong and hurting nobody. When arrest was near he ran away. The public piloted him though narrow alleys to escape, but he failed an ran into a full church. There he told his story and people welcomed him and declared themselves prepared to witness he had been there all the time, praying. Police stayed out and retired. The public here is against police, on the side of the seller.

A Fuel Thief

The car of the Mwanza RPC (regional commander, the highest policeman in Mwanza Region), manned with only his drivers/bodyguards, passed a row. People were lynching a fuel thief. They stopped, came out with their guns, rescued and arrested him. The lynching crowd stayed berserk, surrounded the RPC car screaming and still equipped with their stones. After half an hour (in Africa we take our time for everything), a squad of riot police arrived on the scene, launched a few shots, relieved the RPC car with the thief, took over the thief, beat him into one of their lorries and left, followed by the RPC car. As usual, the crowd was against police, but this time thief felt arrest and imprisonment by police preferable to immediate death by stoning. Though as a rule the bystanders are against police, most of them have a police number on their cell phones to call in case of attack.

My dhow kidnapped for ransom by Tanzania lake police: Click HERE

A detail about this I heard later from Philemon runs as follows: while Philemon was prisoner at the patrol boat of Lake Police Mr. Malima, on anchor,  large ship passed in the night. Mr. Malima immediately gave orders:
Start the engine! A smuggler! A smuggler! We'll get a lot of money from them!
Unfortunately the engine refused the first twenty minutes and the smuggler passed. After finally having succeeded to get the engine running,  desperate persecution, accompanied with a lot of swearing, foundered.

Psychological warfare with a probably EU donated Ugandan Marine gunboat at Sese Island: Part 1, Part 2

Draft notes:

Dom's goat story

The machine gun was made in the Netherlands, probably the entire gunboat is paid by European Union countries in the naive belief to stimulate economic development by boosting "lake security". But of course such boats are used by the small army men to feast on the fishing population, while they get orders to stay clear of the big money smuggle routes from their bosses who feast on those.

Percentage Time spent on procuring lake security zero. (In fact: private robbers and smugglers have no problems, they pay officials for being left in "peace")

Percentage Time spent by police and army on small robbery and extortion of the island population: one hundred.

Discussion: where the bug stops: their boss, not higher. Why? If you do not pay the boss the guys get orders to go and get a lot. Now they are, void of orders coming for only little and they will back down after a while if you refuse. The bug stops with the boss if  he thinks his boss does not think you worth the trouble. Hence: low profile make sure they do not now what you have. The bluff threat: "I have the money to have you fired fined and jailed" is counterproductive: this information goes up to the ranks that are entitled to have a go at the bluffed sort of amounts of money, and the little guys forward this information because they know they will be perfectly safe, covered and even get their share. I have to seek my Mwanza errors in this direction.

  the East beach, Presidential body guard, guest of small marine boat with 40 Hp outboard preying on fishermen.