By The Citizen
In Summary
In the very distant past, owning and riding a
motorcycle was a big deal, mostly the preserve of teachers, clergymen
and senior civil servants. Tanzania is now awash with motorcycles,
largely as a tool for the bodaboda taxi business that engages thousands
of young men (women being a negligible fraction), who would otherwise
worsen the unemployment problem aptly likened to a time bomb.
The relatively cheap and fast services bodabodas
offer to even remote settlements in rural and urban centres constitute
a big blessing. The big curse initially lay in the recklessness of
many riders, which has caused many deaths and injuries. This has
lately been broadened by the bodaboda crime genre.
Singly or in pairs, the operators rob passengers.
For most part on the second variety, they staged grab-and-flee ambushes
along streets, targeting handbags they hoped contained substantial
amounts of cash.
A more ambitious, worthwhile and profitable
approach has emerged recently – more sophisticated and armed criminals
ambush and rob people within or near bank compounds.
Unlike the guesswork-oriented approach, there’s
an element of certainty in the new one, whose victims are customers who
withdraw large amounts of money from banks.
The ‘inside job’ factor, which the police force
says it is pursuing, under which unethical bank staff may be tipping
off externally-based accomplices, is most worrisome.
The law enforcers and banking sector stakeholders
must address it seriously. The era of mattresses being cash
repositories is largely gone, but a jittery customer may consider it
preferable to the trauma triggered by the fear of being shot dead or
gravely hurt whenever one embarks on a visit to the bank.
Imposing a phone ban during working hours for
staff in potentially vulnerable sections would touch off anti-human
rights issues, but that wouldn’t compare to the risks posed to
customers’ deposits and lives.
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