Please don’t separate us from our parents, families

Editor, I would like to comment on the article, “How Tanzania evicted its citizens”, published in The New Times on September 11. It is a pity that this so called exercise to weed out criminals from Tanzania was done with a hidden motive. I cannot understand why our Tanzania leadership is separating children from their parents on the grounds that one is not a Tanzanian. We have a beautiful Rwandan mother whom we love so much and our father is a Tanzanian, but we have asked her to stop going to work because we are afraid she will be arrested and expelled to Rwanda. We think we belong both to Tanzania and Rwanda because of the origin of our parents. I visited Rwanda and my uncles and aunts treated me very well. I still have the beautiful memories of that country. To my surprise, none of our MPs has come out to defend the families that are being separated. I think it’s probably because they have no tangible benefits in it, and that’s why they don’t care. Nevertheless, I would like to remind our dear President Jakaya Kikwete, that as children born of parents of Tanzanian and foreign origins, we love our parents the way he loves his children. Our beloved mother cannot be replaced by anything else. If you would not wish to be separated from your wife Mama Salma and your children, why should you order the separation of other Tanzanian families? Why don’t you genuinely ask such people to come and register and be assisted to get proper documents instead of brutally expelling one of them in the presence of their loved ones? What I know is that those affected Tanzanian families will never forget this traumatising period during which they have forcefully been made refugees by their own country. Masika J, Dar es SalaamTanzania

Opinions

Please don’t separate us from our parents, families