There have been the public-owned (later
privatised) Usafiri Dar es Salaam (UDA), which has been serving on many
routes around the city, before being joined by the chaotic ‘daladala’,
which many residents and commuters wouldn’t talk about so kindly.
It is during peak hours, that passenger
volume is at its highest, when pickpockets go into action, stealing from
unsuspecting commuters, who have seen their wristwatches (no longer
fashionable among thieves), handbags, wallets and hard cash snatched.
In recent months, a new wave of crime
has emerged in the country’s commercial capital, which has left victims
in a state of shock and needing medical attention.
One of the victims of the new robbery
style gave his version of things to this reporter, cautioning commuters
against accepting such freebies as fruit and drinks “I was commuting
from Kijitonyama to Mbagala on board a city bus, when a stranger offered
me a drink.
He had an overpowering kind look and
engaged me in a conversation, I developed a trust in him,” Juma Hassan
(not his real name) expressed his ordeal to this newspaper recently. It
all started after Juma had visited a bank at Kijitonyama.
It was upon leaving the money centre’s
premises when he realised that someone was monitoring his movements. “It
never occurred to me that I could be drugged with sedated drinks in a
public service vehicle,” he regrets.
It was not until he had boarded a bus
when he was offered a drink from a ‘kind’ looking man who had begun to
get friendly in form of greetings and a smile. But when the unsuspecting
commuter took the first sip from the bottle he started feeling dizzy.‘’
The worst happened when I took the
second sip. I soon began feeling dizzy and upon taking the second sip, I
went unconscious,’’ Mr Hassan said as he narrated his ordeal.
According to him, after taking the
drink, the only thing he could remember was falling unconscious and then
seeing himself admitted to one of the hospitals at Mbagala without any
clothes except his underwear.
Thereafter, he spent a day in the
hospital before being discharged while still in an unstable condition
due to drug overdose. He admitted that lack of awareness on such
happenings was to blame because he had never thought that he could have
been a criminals’ prey.
“The guy who drugged me might have
suspected that I was carrying a big amount of cash because I had walked
out of the bank carrying a rucksack,’’ he said. He went to say that he
was deceived by the man’s gentlemanly looks.
‘’Even worse was the appearance of the
thief who looked very smart, with strong personality, which one would
swear he was not a thug. Similar episodes have been reported, involving
those who go on drinking sprees; only to find the next day that they
have been drugged and robbed.
Another victim who preferred anonymity
said after two days of falling unconscious after drinking a sedated
drink, he came around only to find himself accommodated at the Muhimbili
National Hospital (MNH).
His story started when commuting from
Kariakoo where he went to buy a flat screen TV before boarding a
Tegeta-bound ‘daladala.’ “Sitting next to me was this smart and very
charming gentleman you wouldn’t imagine is a thief.
When we reached Magomeni Morocco, he
bought two bottles of cold water and offered one to me. I later
suspected that the soft drinks vendor was an accomplice as after the
first sip, I do not remember what happened from there; how I reached MNH
and where my flat screen was,” he painfully narrated.
In another incident, a woman who was
carrying 300,000/- and heading to her business site one morning reported
that she was connived by a stranger who was driving a posh car
accompanied by a woman.
“This man pretended to know me very well
by calling me by my first name and even mentioning the names of my
daughter and brother. I fell into the trap,” she reported. The woman,
who also preferred anonymity, said that with such kind gestures, she was
least worried and accepted a lift.
The tragedy began when I opened the car
door, which was tinted, and someone grabbed my hand and pulled me into
the car, she said.
“No sooner had I got seated a noose was
placed on my head and I immediately lost consciousness,” she said. She
said she was found after midnight dumped in one of the suburbs in the
outskirts of the city.
Ilala Regional Police Commander (RPC),
Mr Lucas Mkondya, said that so far they have not received such cases,
noting however, that incidents of residents getting sedated involved
individuals who were on drinking spree in some bars in which drinks were
laced with some drug.
He said despite the isolated incidents
in bars, the police were still consolidating their data and using
various sources on such crime while investigating the crime.
