Why we never learn

 An excavator clears rubble at the site where a 16-storey building collapsed at Indira Gandi Street in Dar es Salaam in Mach this year, in which at least 36 people died. Seven months after the tragedy, investigations are yet to be completed.

Dar es Salaam. A 10-storey building comes down tumbling in a heap of rubble. Shortly after, sirens pierce the air as medical and security teams rush to the scene to pull out victims buried deep the bowels of hard concrete and steel.

Political leaders and government officials arrive to join bemused and shocked onlookers milling around the scene as both survivors and the dead are retrieved and rushed to hospital or the morgue.

Orders from national leaders to thoroughly investigate, arrest and prosecute those behind the disaster follow. In a matter of days, the disaster area is cleared and fenced off. Scores of people will be rounded up and charged in court.

Soon, though,it is business as usual. Justice will be a long time coming--perhaps even allowing for a similar disaster to strike again before the first one is sorted.

This is a rendition of true events right here at home. Shockingly, however, no one has been brought to book or held responsible five years after suspects were arraigned for the collapse of the 10-storey building in Dar es Salaam.

The five accused in the 2008 disaster that claimed the life of one man are free today after the court dismissed their case without a hearing. For five years, the case failed to start over incomplete investigations, ending up in the discharge of the accused in February 2011.

For four years, the case was adjourned at least 60 times at Kisutu Resident Magistrate’s Court. Each time, prosecutors told the court they were still investigating the case. In some instances, according to court records, prosecutors pleaded for adjournments simply because they did not come to court with the case file.

After four years of dilly-dallying, Resident Magistrate Devotha Kisoka dropped the matter in February last year and declared the accused free. The magistrate cited article 107a of the constitution, which prohibits delays in dispensing justice without reasonable ground.

A younger brother of Hassan Nganoga, who died in the 2008 disaster, said the family was shocked by the manner in which prosecutors handled the case.

“We feel the delay was deliberate to frustrate justice for reasons that can only be known to the police and prosecutors,” he said this week. He appealed to the authorities to re-open the case and investigate the police and prosecutors.

The Citizen learn that a case on the collapse of a building early this year, in which 36 people were killed in Dar es Salaam, could take a similar direction. Some 11 people have been charged with manslaughter in this instance, also before the same magistrate in Kisutu. It has been mentioned several times, with investigators citing the same reason--delayed investigations.

Director of Criminal Investigations Robert Manumba said he was not aware of the case. “Let’s do a follow-up to establish what exactly happened to this case,” he added. “You know we have various organs dealing with such cases.”