DISASTER! JAIL TERM FOR THE HEADMASTER

 

One day in September 1962 while working in his office,  a messenger from the district government office brought a note, it was from Mr. Mwalukasa who was the District Education Officer(DEO), the note was in Kiswahili and read like this;

To the Headmaster Iringa Middle School,

Msaidie huyo aliyeleta  hiyo barua ni mesenja wangu ana tatizo anataka kwenda kuoa. Msaidie shilingi 300/- atarudisha.

The  DEO was well aware that the Headmaster had the school funds in his capacity. The money was never returned, my father must have naively thought that the messenger would return the money after the wedding.
On Friday November 9, 1962, I was in my father’s office playing while he was working, I still remember, a white man wearing blue shorts and short sleeved shirt, coming into the office, after some talk, my father sent me home and told me to tell my mother that he had been taken to the police station.

What really happened that day was that actually two people came, the primary school supervisor, Mr. Amrani Mayagila had accompanied the second visitor who was from the Government Audit department in Mbeya,  he came and told my father that he had been informed that there was 300/- shillings missing from the school fund!!. 
My father agreed and showed the Auditor the note from Mr Mwalukasa, but the auditor told my father they  were taking him to the police station.
My mother was by then working as a Welfare Officer so she was not at home at the time. When she came home and heard what happened she went to the police station and was told my father was already  remand, and  would be taken to court the next morning.  She worked hard that evening to raise the 300/- and by 9:30 in the morning she was at the court house with the money only to be told it was over, her husband told her that he had already been sentenced to 18 months in jail.
He was a prisoner at the Iringa prison for 5 days , I remember my mother taking me to see him, it was strange seeing my father in jail uniforms squatting like other in mates, small as I was, the sad picture has forever  stuck in my head. On Thursday November 15^th , just 6 days later, my father and 20 other prisoners all in handcuffs  were transferred to Ruanda Prison in a public bus. They arrived in Mbeya around 5 pm, and were sent to Ruanda prison, where they were counted and identified and given numbers.
Francis Kitime was now prisoner no 1797.