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| Rukwa Regional Police Commander Jacob Mwaruanda shows reporters guns alleged to have been used in committing crime. A new study shows that crime is rising in Tanzania and people generally feel unsafe. PHOTO | FILE |
Dar es Salaam. Over 45 per cent of Tanzanians feel unsafe walking in their neighborhoods due to increased crime incidents according to a report launched yesterday.
The report, which is an outcome of a research
conducted by Twaweza, says that the figure resonates with an Afro barometer data which shows that 43 per cent of the Tanzanian
population fear crime in their homes and that the statistics are high
compared to the average for Africa which is 32 per cent.
Twaweza, a ten year citizen- centered initiative
focusing on large scale change in East Africa, says the report dubbed
‘Are we safe?’ was aimed at reporting on the country’s state of security
and that the data is from sauti za wananchi, which is a nationally
representative mobile phone survey of households across Tanzania
Mainland.
Speaking to reporters during the launch of the
report, Mr Elvis Mushi, a Twaweza researcher, said the outcomes showed
that most of the citizens become more fearful during elections as half
of the respondents expressed fear of becoming victims of political
violence as compared to 45 per cent who felt unsafe walking in their
neighbourhoods over the last year.
He said the report further reveals that more than half of communities in Tanzania do not have police officers.
“According to interviews with village executive
officers and urban neighbourhood chairpersons 62 per cent of communities
in the country do not have a designated police officer and the
situation is worse in rural areas where 76 per cent of the villages
report not having a police officer posted there,” he said.
In his words, the Inspector General of Police
(IGP), Mr Earnest Mangu, said the force was doing all it can to deal
with the problem of police shortage in rural areas but noted that most
citizens do not know the use of police officers saying they inform the
police on issues that can be solved by local authorities in their
places.
He said there is need to inform Tanzanians on the use of emergency mobile numbers as a large number of them do not know them.
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