Recently, I had a wonderful trip to one of the Lake zone regions whose inhabitants are traditionally known to have a violent temperament. In fact there is even a widespread gossip that it was such acts of violence which prompted the government to brand one of the region’s districts as the police special zone. The decision was allegedly mounted to curb the spate of violence.
Just as I set for my journey, a friend whispered that violence was so much on the rise so that victims especially women were now getting used to it. Though it sounds like a mockery, my greater interest was about a widespread rumour that married women who were not regularly beat up by their husbands regarded such treatment as a sign that things were no longer at ease in their wedlock.
It strikes gender sensitive activists hard to hear that some married women even went to a stage of deliberately provoking their husbands as a way of demanding their ‘right’ to be slapped. “You don’t believe in what I am saying, go and show me of any woman from this region with no scars around her face as a result of such mistreatment”, said one of my enthusiastic informers.
So since the tales, including genital mutilation cultures among the regions predominant tribes, the region has turned out to be a convenient destination of human rights protection organisations and pressure groups.
For that matter, Evidence for Action, an organisation affiliated to the welfare and health of women is one of these organisations indulged in women’s rights related activities in the place. In fact Evidence for Action had recently unveiled statistics indicating that the region has one of highest maternal mortality rate across the country.
The motives of my visit was initially connected with establishing the factors accelerating maternal mortality, though my direct conviction on the matter was a possible correlation with widespread incidents of gender based violence.
Just as we embarked on our mission, romours were rife that one violent man suspecting his wife’s indulgence on secretive application of contraceptive methods had committed a bizarre crime that left many in a real suspense.
The man allegedly forced his bare hand into her wife’s genitals to drag out an intra-uterine contraceptive device using unsterilized razor blade. The victim was allegedly hospitalised after sustaining serious injuries during the process managed by an untrained “medical practitioner” who was arrested in the aftermath.
But you can’t imagine as we drove along eye-catching scenery of the famous Serengeti National Park plus the soothing breeze of the Lake Victoria, my mind was struck by something other than the male brutality against women.
Before I and the rest of those on board could figure out what was amiss, a nauseating stench filled the car. Every one of us held nose and tightened mouth firmly in total bewilderment. At first none could notice the direct cause until we started counting dead bodies of dogs and cats which had been ruthlessly knocked down by reckless drivers.
From Magu District sprawling shanty town to Bunda, we had counted not less than forty dogs’ and several cats’ dead bodies. Within something like another forty kilometres from Bunda to Musoma town there were countless dogs’ dead bodies thrown along the way. The bodies were often abandoned in the midst of a highway and left to decompose apparently with nobody’s care on the polluted air nuisance it caused to passengers in vehicles cruising along.
Instead of concentrating on the motives of my visit this moment, my attention was particularly drawn by deplorable conditions of the dogs and cats dead bodies thrown haphazardly along the road. Well, human rights activists would often argue that nothing takes precedence of human lives. But would animal activists refrain from questioning if at all there was no way to avoid such incidents?
As per international animal laws, the welfare and interests of pets, wildlife, farm animals and the like, have to be protected. Such animals could involve the dogs which are used in entertainment and other animals used in research and experiments. For the most part, the dogs serve a dual purpose. They're pets or companions, and at the same time they provide security for their owners and their families.
In addition to defining the rights of animals, the law also defines the rights and duties of owners towards animals in their care. This includes custody over pets, avoidance of veterinary malpractice, desisting from wrongful death or injury to pet, enforceable trusts for pets and non cruelty against animals.
It may not yet be obvious as to how many dogs die in Mara region every year if someone were to compute the death toll as per maternal mortality ratio pattern. But to be specific, the region has one of the highest dog mortality rates as much as it has on maternal mortality, though both of whose causes may vary across.
The region’s high maternal mortality rate revolves around poor health services largely occasioned by poor infrastructures, understaffing and lack of awareness among the local community on use of facility based healthcare etc. At least measures to curb these bottlenecks are underway, the case of Evidence for Action as a credible instance. But they too require both political will and have budgetary implications.
In contrast with this, the innocent animals die as a result of sheer drivers’ negligence and more or less the negligence of owners who let them wander irrepressibly. Guta ward livestock officer Isaka Makene says Bunda District has an estimated 3,400 dogs. The animals play the role of night watchmen against cattle rustlers.
“The more the large size of livestock one has, the more the “watchdogs” he is likely to have” added Mr Makene . He said his ward had an estimated herd of 60,000 cattle and hence a relative pack of dogs needed to strike the balance.
However, Mr Makene said the dogs found dead along the highway could be a problem not only involving drivers but also shared by owners who did not cage the animals along their homestead especially during day time.
But Mr Winston Kabantega, the Director of the Lake Zone Driving School, had a different school of thought on the matter. He sees failure by owners to confine their animals not by any means a rationale for reckless driving. The drivers were not given a leeway to knock down animals simply because they had been left in none’s custody. He warned that drivers with such beliefs were likely to end up causing accidents which would cost a lot of human lives. What if a vehicle swerves off the road after stepping on an animal? He queried.
“According to the law, drivers were bound to adhere to road safety regulations in as much as the cattle keepers, also referred to as “drivers” are barred by law from driving their animals in roads” he added.
He insists that drivers’ adherence to road safety rules which include respecting road signs restriction on speed limits were essentially bounding.
He noted, though, that creating more public awareness was of paramount significance across all aspects of road safety rules. He said people should seriously take it into account that roads were reserved for vehicles and not animals. He referred this to existing regulations by the Tanzania Roads Agency (TANROADS)
But when all this is at stake, a myriad of issues pose major challenges against measures mounted to curb the road carnage, let alone hundreds of animals slaughtered daily along the highways. Previously, the government had imposed speed governor restrictions on passenger vehicles but to be frank, they have done very little to curb the alarming trends. Accidents have kept on occurring for each passing day.
Some people like the Lake Zone Driving School Director believe that, perhaps it is high time the speed governors are fitted in the drivers’ heads and not elsewhere in vehicles. For, one wonders for instance what use are these speed governors if the best they could do to avert the accident misery is more said than done.
What is the fate of younger school children and other pedestrians using the Mwanza –Musoma highway which the drivers have now turned into a butchery of thousands of animals? Has the killing of dogs and other tamed animals along the highway become a legalised traffic offence?
Is it because of corruption allegations among the traffic police officers who allegedly offer driving permits to good for nothing licensees?
Even the road signs do no longer provide some rescue for school children crossing the road. But this is not because drivers do not give these signs the respect they deserve but just because most of them have been stolen by unscrupulous scrap metal dealers.
Obviously, you are a careful driver and you will never dare driving on a dog’s dead body. You feel like it is killing it twice, so to speak. But reckless drivers ruthlessly drive on dog’s dead bodies as much as they wish until the decomposed animals are entirely pressed on a tarmac surface as pancakes.
In 1998 in Sumbawanga, a primary court magistrate gave a death sentence to a dog whose owner had named it after the government department “Immigration”. The historic ruling generated interest and a lot of public debate.
In his ruling, Honourable Onesmo Zunda found the owner of the dog guilty of the charges against him and he was jailed for a six month term. He also ordered the dog “Immigration” to be killed. That particular ruling was implemented without giving the accused a chance to appeal.
The case attracted a lot of public interest and on April 28th 1998, at a press conference, former Tanzania Chief Justice Francis Nyalali said the order to execute the dog was ridiculous, illegal and unjust.
A comment by a friend of mine from Iringa even made me laugh to tears. He made a mockery that dogs in Mara region were endangered species as much as they were braced for the same in one of the regions where they are edible animals. But a huge question persists. If a Sumbawanga magistrate erred both in law and in fact for an order to kill a dog, what about these reckless drivers?