Authorities in Tanzania Not Bothered by Oil-covered Rapists
By Neo Sithole
Authorities in Western Tanzania are doing little to intervene in the spiking amounts of rapes by oil-covered men.
Women in Western Tanzania have been forced to live in constant fear of being attacked and raped in their homes by grease-covered rapists. Scores of women have already reported accounts of being violated by a group of men known locally as Teleza who break into their homes, typically at night, lubricated with grease so they are hard to catch.
Attacks of this kind had reportedly occurred around 2014 however have seen an increase ever since. Annagrace Rwehumbiza, a program officer for youth engagement organisation TAMASHA, was among the first people to investigate the phenomenon. She says it has changed and spread over the years.
“Initially these men only targeted single women, almost like they wanted to punish them for not adhering to the norms of society by getting married,”
she says.
At some point, this changed. Suddenly even married women were being targeted.
The nature of attacks has also become more brutal and indiscriminate with the men threatening women with machetes and in some cases leaving them with life-threatening injuries. A woman said that she had been raped in front of her children, then a few months later her niece who was pregnant had also been targeted. Age is also not a factor for these rapists as two elderly sisters, in their 70’s say they have been raped twice.
Rwehumbiza saying that
“we are unable to determine where this phenomenon has come from, it is very much rooted in a need to control women…These men know that the victims will be shunned from society, may be left by their husbands and will lose their livelihoods. These factors seem to be at play here.”
, places the rapes into perspective with broader dynamics around gender violence and patriarchy in Tanzania.
Women have struggled to get the authorities to act as many who have reported their rapes to police have been branded as sex workers and not taken seriously. In 2016 action was solicited by a group of survivors who spoke out together in front of the press however the action was short lived with the men being set free days after their arrests.
Women have also suffered second humiliation at the hands of police through the looks received or questions asked when filing the case. Under Tanzanian law, victims of a crime who need medical advice must fill in a PF3 form so women who do not go to the police are exploited to pay for a copy of the form.
When African Arguments questioned Kigoma Regional Police Commander, Martin Otieno, about the attacks in the area, he was largely dismissive. “There is nothing special with Teleza,” he said.
“It is just being exaggerated too much with those NGOs. No rape has been reported, rather just Grievous Bodily Harm.”
Political figures have also voiced their concern over the matter with opposition leader Zitto Kabwe saying that Authorities are simply irresponsible, “I would like to see the culprits punished. Furthermore, we now pushing for community policing as a sustainable solution to end this matter.” during a speech.
President John Magufuli on the 4th of June also mentioned the issue however only to express his displeasure that the media was focusing on recent arrests regarding the matter rather than the fact that Tanzania had won an award for the Best National Park in Africa calling the rapes a ‘minor issue’.
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