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 15th
, 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.
