Forceful eviction sends Dar beggars into hiding

Dar es Salaam. Scores of beggars who regularly fill Dar es Salaam streets yesterday went into hidding for fear of forceful eviction ordered by Dar es Salaam regional commissioner Paul Makonda.

Though the order was for them to return home, inquiries by The Citizen found out that nearly all common joints for beggars were desserted with no single beggar to be spotted.

Last week, Mr Makonda ordered the beggars to dissapear from Dar es Salaam streets and return to their respective places of domicile or face a forceful eviction from authorities.

Spot check at different areas, particularly along major roads heading to the city centre, observed no beggar pleading for alms from pedestrians as they normally did.

Previously, driving from Ubungo junction to the city centre on Morogoro Road, beggars would ask for alms from motorists almost at every traffic lights, but not yesterday.

One beggar, who was spotted begging vigilantly at the junction of Azikiwe and Ali Hassan Mwinyi roads at Posta area, said since his fellows temporarily went into hidding since the previous day to wait for the dust to settle. “What I know is that they are hidding in some places, but I cannot tell where,” he told The Citizen. Speaking with an apparent fear of arrest, the beggar vowed to stay put: “I am disabled and have nowhere to go,” stressed the handicapped beggar.

He criticised the government for what he described as landing a deaf ear on beggars, mostly those living with disabilities. “For a long time now we have asking for help, including taking us to special centres, but the government does not heed to our outcry ,” he lamented.

Yesterday, Dar es Salaam Special Police Zone Commander Simon Siro later in the afternoon told a news conference that they did not start the operation to remove beggars after learning many of them had complied with the order.