Political motives alleged in police sackings

The police force in Zanzibar has reportedly expelled 12 policemen for political reasons since January’s bloody demonstrations on the archipelago between the ruling Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM) party and the opposition Civic United Front (CUF), Radio Tanzania reported on Monday. The officers were said to have failed to carry out their duties and “deliberately weakened” police efforts to contain clashes with CUF supporters, in which over 30 people died, the report stated.

Two of the sacked policemen were quoted as saying they had not been sacked for political reasons as a result of the rivalries in Zanzibar between the CCM and the CUF. “I believe I have been sacked because I’m from Pemba [the second largest of the islands of Zanzibar, and site of the worst clashes in January]”, one of the officers stated.

Assistant Police Commissioner in Zanzibar Juma Mtumwa Abdalla said the policemen had been sacked not because they were followers of an opposition party but for disciplinary reasons. “Anyone who goes contrary to laid down regulations faces expulsion,” he added. Press Services Tanzania (PST) discovered that the officers had had mobile phones seized by police administrators, who claimed they were being used to leak police strategies to cope with the demonstrations to CUF leaders, Radio Tanzania reported.

Over 2,000 refugees, mainly CUF supporters, fled to Kenya from the Zanzibari islands of Unguja and Pemba in January after a heavy clampdown on CUF protests against what it considered fraudulent general elections in October last year.