Dar es Salaam. Many Tanzanians still hold
traditional healers in high esteem. They are believed to have special
skills and powers to heal diseases which defy conventional medical
treatment.
A good number of people consult them to seek protection from devils and even increase their chances of making fortunes.
But
two recent decisions of the Court of Appeal involving traditional
healers who were convicted and jailed for raping and sexually abusing
schoolgirls is a nudge to parents who put too much trust on the medicine
men.
14-year-old schoolgirl sexually abused
Until January 21,
2017, 14-year-old schoolgirl Ukae* (*not her real name) was living with
her stepmother at Kibaoni, Kilosa District in Morogoro Region.
On
that day, at around 6:30pm, Ukae was playing outside their house when a
well-known traditional healer in the area, Masanja Makunga, passed-by
and asked the Standard VII student to follow him to his residence.
To cover up his evil intention, he told the girl that he wanted to protect her from evil spirits that had been haunting her.
Believing
Makunga was a good man, Ukae heeded to the call and followed him to his
room located a few houses away from where the schoolgirl lived.
Makunga had rented a room at one woman’s house. When Makunga arrived, the woman was outside her house doing her stuff.
Makunga
and the would-be-rape victim of grave sexual abuse entered into the
room leaving Ukae’s young brother who happened to follow them outside
the house.
The traditional healer spent half an hour with the girl
inside his room. Ukae’s brother was unable to witness what was going on
inside the room but it was Ukae who disclosed what went on inside the
room later that day.
She told Kilosa District Court where Makunga
faced grave sexual abuse charges that while inside the room, Makunga
directed her to undress and position herself on a frog posture.
According
to the victim’s evidence, what followed was a great shock to her. She
said the traditional healer took a razor blade and started to make
incisions on various parts of her body, shaved her private parts and
smeared her with medicines.
The girl further told the court that all that time the appellant had undressed himself and remained with only with briefs.
“The appellant told me to open my legs but I declined because I was in menstruation period,” the victim told the court.
Realising
that his deep desire to defile the girl could not be fulfilled, Mr
Makunga, instead decided to put his legs on the laps of the girl and
started sacking her ears and mouth. He later released the girl and
escorted her back home.
Upon returning home, the girl’s mother
remained suspicious and inquired what had transpired. The girl narrated
the whole incident to her stepmother who reported the matter to the area
chairman. Mr Makungu was then arrested and charged in court.
After hearing evidence from six witnesses, Kilosa District Court convicted and sentenced him to 20 years in jail.
During
trial, Makunga shrugged off the charges and attributed his arrest to
hatred between him and certain woman with whom he happened to have had
affairs but later left with his phone.
Makunga set free on appeal
Makunga’s
first appeal against imprisonment failed in the High Court in 2018 but
his second attempts to secure freedom paid off recently after the Court
of Appeal set him free on technical grounds.
The appeal court agreed
with him that there was no evidence that the trial magistrate conducted
voire dire test (preliminary examination to determine the competence of a
witness) to satisfy herself that the victim, a child of tender age,
understood the nature of an oath.
Section 127 (2) of the Evidence Act requires magistrates to swear in a child of tender age before receiving her testimony.
At
this point, a magistrate usually puts some few questions on the girl so
that she promise to tell the trial court nothing but the truth and not
lies before her evidence can be received.
This section was amended in
2016 and the changes came into force on August 7, 2016. The changes
removed the requirement for the court to conduct voire dire examination.
“In
terms of the aforesaid amendment, the trial magistrate was bound to
abide to the new position of the law which requires a child of tender
age to promise to tell the trial court the truth and not lies before
reception of her evidence. There is no indication on record that there
was any compliance as the victim did not so commit herself,” said Court
of Appeal judges Shaban Lila, Mwanaisha Kwariko and Ignus Kitusi in
their recent decision.
Healer rapes 6-year-old girl
In another
case that shows traditional healers can turn cruel onto a girl child, a
traditional healer, Barnaba Changalo, recently lost an appeal against
30-year jail term for defiling a six-year-old schoolgirl in October 2014
at Milala Village, Mpanda District, Katavi Region.
As the case with
Makunga was, Changalo is also a well-known traditional healer at his
village. On October 26, 2014 he visited the house of the victim’s
grandmother, Aziza Athumani, who stayed with the schoolgirl and one
Paschal Adam.
The traditional healer was well received and attended
at that house and spent a night there. The following morning the
victim’s brother (name withheld) left for the farm while the victim went
to school.
Ms Athuman was sick and remained at home. The traditional healer gave her some medicine and remained in the house.
The
victim told the court that she later returned home from school. As she
had a wound on her hand, Changalo attended her by rubbing on it with
some medicine.
After treating the girl, Changalo pulled her into a bath room, took off his trousers, undressed her and started defiling her.
“I
felt pain but could not shout because the appellant had covered my
mouth,” the victim told Mpanda District Court during trial.
As the
traditional healer continued to defile the girl, Ms Athumani went to the
toilet for a short call only to find the door closed. Upon knocking it,
the appellant replied that he was in the toilet.
The woman kept on
waiting for Changalo to be through but a long time passed. Suspicious of
what was happening, Ms Athumani peeped through the door of the toilet
and saw the traditional healer defiling the girl.
He was arrested and charged at Mpanda District Court. He was convicted and sentenced to serve a life imprisonment.
In
his defence, Mr Changalo claimed the case against him was framed by Ms
Athumani to avoid paying him Sh200,000 after treating her aching leg. He
claimed in court that Ms Athumani had complained she had been
bewitched.
Changalo lost his first appeal in the High Court in 2018.
He moved to the Court of Appeal where he claimed the offense against him
was not proved beyond all reasonable doubt.
The judges rejected his
grounds of appeal but substituted the life imprisonment to 30 years in
jail after prosecution failed to prove that the child victim was below
the age of ten years.
The appellant was sentenced to serve life
imprisonment in terms of section 131 (3) of the Penal Code in which a
life imprisonment sentence is desirable to a person who commits an
offence of rape to a girl under the age of ten years.
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