Kigoma town on the shores of Lake Tanganyika, recently made famous by the hit song Cinderella by Bongo flava musician Ali Kiba, has a history going back to the days of explorers David Livingstone and Henry Morton Stanley.

It was at Ujiji Old town in Kigoma Region that Stanley, the newspaper reporter from New York Herald met Dr Livingstone in 1871, and asked the famous question, “Dr Livingstone, I presume?”

But recent cases of highway robberies by armed criminal gangs are jeopardising the regions’ tourism and general travel.

The absence of a tarmacked road from Kahama to the lakeside town of Kigoma, does no help matter either.

The 335km-long Kigoma-Kibondo-Kasulu-Nyakanazi road links western Tanzania tourism circuit such as the Gombe National Park — made famous by primate scientists Jane Goodall — and the Mahale National Park, the Lake Tanganyika circuit as well as the historic Ujiji town.

The 93km stretch from Nyakanazi to Kibondo is the most notorious. “Criminals here use machine guns to steal even a radio,” said Imani Domick, a public service vehicle (daladala) driver.

The daladala, also known as matatu in neighbouring Kenya, is the most reliable form of transport in this area, but since an attack but armed robbers, Dominick’s livelihood is no more.
On the fateful day, the robbers ambushed him when he was approaching Kifura village. Seven armed robbers emerged from a nearby forest and started shooting at the vehicle, deflating the front tires and shattering the windscreen.

He lost control of the vehicle. Four people died on the spot, among them a pregnant woman heading to hospital to deliver.

The passengers were robbed and a man who resisted was “shot seven times in the chest.”
A policeman who was in the bus as part of a security escort team said, “The bandits are after money and mobile phones and those who refuse to surrender them are killed.”

The police officer added that most of the criminals are suspected to have crossed from unstable neighbouring countries, where arms are readily available.

The daladala driver said it is easy to buy bullets and guns in villages bordering Burundi.

In August, two vehicles owned by the local government and a private truck were also attacked by robbers, in which two people were killed near Kakong’onko village, a few hours from the border with Burundi.

Recently, Ally’s Sports Bus Service, which runs a daily service between Kahama and Kigoma via Nyakanazi-Kibongo-Kasulu road, was attacked.

According to the bus conductor, one late evening the bus was slowly going up the Kalenge hill stretch when a heavily built man in full military uniform carrying automatic weapons walked by unhurried and a few metres ahead was joined by another three who appeared from the bush and immediately started firing at the vehicle for about 10 minutes.

When they posed, police escort team in the bus responded by shooting in the air, and then, “all hell broke loose.

The heavily armed gangsters started shooting again, and for 15 minutes they shot at every inch of the bus.

The gang, armed with guns, machetes and clubs then stormed the bus and ordered all surviving passengers to get out and lie down in the middle of the earthen road.

An unidentified Tanzania People’s Defence Force personnel and two other passengers who hesitated were shot dead.

Eleven people died on the spot and another unconfirmed number died in hospital. Haruna Longa, a victim of the incident says the robbers stole all mobile phones, money and other valuables.

There have been more than a dozen robbery cases in the Kigoma region, according to information obtained by The East- African, most of which are not reported to the police.

“The robberies are now threatening tourism,” said a tour guide at the Gombe National Park. The park borders Lake Tanganyika to the north and it is the smallest national park in Tanzania. It is home to about 80 chimpanzees.

The Mahale National Park borders Lake Tanganyika to the south of Kigoma town. It takes four hours by boat and eight by ship to reach there. The park has hotels and beautiful camping sites, and a chimpanzee population of 500, larger than that found in Gombe park.