Media Strengthening
The following excerpted article was the winning entry in the First Investigative Journalism Contest under the MCA-BONGA program.
Taxi Business Flawed
Tom Mosoba writes for The Citizen. This article was published by the paper on October 5, 2007, and won the first prize of the Investigative Journalism awards.
The next time you are flagging down or calling for a taxicab, be it outside your home, office or even at designated public parking bays, stop and think twice.
Today, the likelihood of getting into serious trouble with taxi crews is alarmingly on the increase, if recent incidences, particularly, in Dar es Salaam , is anything to go-by.
Chances that you will get to your destination safely are as high as getting robbed, magged and even raped or sodomised by criminals who have invaded the taxi business to hide their evil inclinations.
But the disturbing trend, hitherto hushed as petty crime, has sent chilling fear among commuters, mainly single and unaccompanied women, following the greasily murder, late August of one of the taxi crime victims, Neema.
The deceased, a mother of three was found murdered after what family members believe was an encounter with criminals who gave her a ride in a supposed taxicab at night in Mbezi area.
But Neema is not alone, only her sad case was juxtaposed to capture the public’s state of panic in an internet warning over intrusion by “robbers and murderers”, of Dar es Salaam ’s taxi operations.
In every corner of the city, residents have a tale to tell, as the frequency of unsuspecting commuters getting terrorised in similar fashion pile up.
From Mbezi, Tegeta, Kimara, Ubungo, Mwenge, Upanga, Kijitonyama, Tabata, Mbagala to Kigamboni, the outcry is the same.
Some of the recent victims interviewed narrated their chilling ordeal in the hands of taxi drivers-turned mean looking and armed and mean beasts.
This week alone, at least two women were raped and robbed in Kimara and Tabata area. In the kimara incident, the 22 year old victim (name withheld) lost Sh74, 500 in cash, two mobile phones a gold chain and other items values at Sh800, 000.
“They wanted to rape me but they were put off because I had period pads on. One suggested they sodomise me but before that a motorcyclist appeared forcing them to speed off,” she narrated.
She said she had managed to capture the number of the said taxi and handed it over at the Kimara Mwisho police post where she reported the incident. She said on the material day, she boarded the taxi (Plate no. withheld) outside Tanesco headquarters at 7.30pm and sat in the front seat.
“The driver sped past Kimara corner where I was to alight. When I protested and threatened to jump out, his accomplice who had hid in the back seat removed a sharp knife and threatened to stab me. They drove to an isolated place and frisked me of everything,” she said.
In Tabata and Kijitonyama, police are holding two taxis suspected to have been involved. The Tabata vehicle was abandoned by its suspected crew who fled after their raped victim raised alarm, attracting passersby. The latter’s driver was involved in a robbery after which he switched the number plates to pass the taxi as a private car.
Early in the year, there was the publicised attack on an IPP media employee who suffered serious knife wounds in an attack executed through help of a taxicab outside her offices while the Kisutu court in March, sentenced to life imprisonment, one Idd Ali who as a taxi driver, sodomised a primary school boy he was entrusted to pick and drop from school.
Late last year, a radio jockey was briefly arrested for questioning when the body of his girl friend, was discovered rotting in a bush, several days after vanishing in a taxi.
Investigation by The Citizen for some time now has revealed shocking details, others boarding on corruption, as reasons why insecurity has crept into the taxi business.
To some extent, the police, but more so Dar es Salaam municipal authorities, are to blame for nurturing a chaotic taxi operation system with loopholes that provided ammunition to suspected criminals.
For instance, a cartel like operation, within Ilala municipal council, has for years benefited from a strange hold on the taxi licensing business.
Enjoying sole powers to grant the operating licenses in the whole of Dar es Salaam , well healed officials at Ilala have been colluding to allow illegal taxis to operate in favour of kickbacks. One usually paid Sh350, 000 in fees every year to operate a single taxi unit.
And they are running the cartel behind the backs of their own bosses. Dar es Salaam Regional Commissioner Abbas Kandoro expressed dismay on learning of this licensing arrangement vowing to dismantle it.
“I am shocked to hear that that is the case. Each municipality is however supposed to take charge of its own licensing mechanism,” Kandoro said.
The folly of the licensing by one authority is that while Ilala has been spewing out more and more illegal operators using the backdoor, Kinondoni and Temeke municipalities do not cope with the planning for demand of taxi parking bays.
It was for the same reason that last April, Ilala civic leaders resolved to annul all established parking bays and order a mopping exercise from June to weed out those licensed illegally.
Ilala Mayor Abuu Juma confirmed many Licenses were issued without approval by the town planning committee, a factor that had contributed to the rise in crime perpetrated by those not properly in operation.
As at the moment, according to Kandoro, the exercise to demarcate and map out the legal parking bays for all taxis would be underway soon but it has not started yet.
It means therefore all the taxis are currently not supposed to be parked where they are. But the regional commissioner says an exception is allowed for areas that are clearly marked as taxi lots, complete with a sign post.
Some taxi drivers themselves blame police and the municipal authorities for the mess. One of them operating in Mwenge said police have been slow and sometimes not willing to act against information they volunteered in attempt to expose known criminals working amidst them.
“We have no proper parking lots because they are not yet done with demarcation. Those of us who have tried to engage in some sort of groupings are harassed by municipal workers and police. Criminals, those we know are here for ill motives have often walked free from police,” explained the driver who wished his name to remain unanimous.
He said those operating illegal taxis were dangerous people who would not spare him for spilling the beans. The driver admitted that for the last two months, not less than five incidences of robbery have occurred within the radius of his operation.
He says police take unnecessarily long to act, a factor that proves complaints from the Kimara victim. Who despite providing the registration number plate for the suspected car, has given up following the matter. “Police on the case has been demanding payments to allegedly place informers to look for the car, money which I do not have,” the woman narrated.
Charles Chembe, is the founder and national chairman of an association called “Tunawajali” Group, literally meaning we care, that is trying to bring some semblance of sanity in the business. He is however almost without members as drivers prefer to operate in the background.
“There is no proper taxi management system in Dar es Salaam ,” he says and points out that because of the easy come and easy go approach, it would be easy for people with criminal records to pass for taxi drivers.
Chembe said an attempt by the association with help from the police to have all drivers file their particulars, including issuing their photographs has hit a dead end. By the time of this interview, only 70 drivers had filed the special clearance forms with police in their areas of work.
This is despite the fact that there are an estimated 3000 registered taxis and the numerous illegal ones in the city. They are served with close to 200 parking yards that have been banned.
“For the others, it is easy for them to disappear after committing felony and nobody would know where they come from.” Car owners he said are also to blame. With stiff competition, they are said to be giving their cars to people with questionable backgrounds and demanding a lot of money from them.
The Citizen established too, that some tour operators, have licenses for which they charge some unofficial fees to allow people use their own private cars as tour vans or special taxis outside the main operating procedures.
“There are those drivers who come to make quick backs by stealing. These ones you will find at night and at parking bays in daylight. They are also the majority of those that pry on people stranded for lack of enough daladalas or mostly women who would rather pay a little bit more to catch a smooth ride that could however end anywhere,” Chembe said.
The official says most drivers today masquerading as taxi drivers do not meet basic qualifications. A discreet survey carried out early in the year, found out that 70 percent of them in Dar es Salaam alone hold class D and E driving licenses, meaning they are not supposed to be driving passengers. Their cars held no insurance nor PSV approvals, a risk that could cost commuters their lives incase of fatal accidents.
Chembe says his association was ready to work with the government to ensure the operators obeyed the laws but first wanted the government and municipal authorities to hasten the demarcation of parking lots.
He also urges that taxis that do not meet full requirements be removed immediately in an operation. “It will surprise you that people do not know that taxis in Ilala are fore example suppose to spot green stickers, those in Kinondoni yellow and Temeke one need to have blue stickers all the time,” he said.
Chembe, who is himself a former taxi driver before a nasty accident ended his career, is on a drive to make the business user friendly and save clean drivers keen to only eke a living.
By joining the association, he believes some of the problems and challenges facing the sector would be addressed. But for now, he is facing stiff opposition from some operators whom he said because of lack of adequate education and sensitisation, fell to a ploy by those wanting to live in a state of anarchy where their illegal activities thrived.
Kandoro said he was receptive to Chembe’s association and has held talks with them to try to move things. “I cannot however force them to join an association that they were not ready to build.
The Regional Commissioner said however that the crime rate among the taxis was not a wave and urged commuter to be extra careful when boarding any of the taxis. “They should not use the illegal ones and should demand to know from the driver the necessary provisions,” Kandoro advised.
