Lt Gen Imran Kombe: Former spy chief killed out of mistaken identity

On June 30, 1996, former Tanzania Intelligence and Security Service (TISS) director-general, Lieutenant General Imran Kombe, was gunned down in broad daylight in Moshi.

A murder story that remains shrouded in mystery and conflicting narratives.

There have been several conspiracy theories, with some saying Kombe was killed by the establishment of the time, whereas others believe that he was killed by police.

This series of articles delves into what actually happened, who shot Kombe more than 15 times, what the confessions of his killers say, and how much money his family was awarded in the form of compensation.

This narrative is based on evidence presented in the court case and in a lawsuit for damages filed by Kombe's wife, Roseleene Kombe, against the Attorney General (AG), as well as the narratives surrounding the murder.

However, there are those who believe that Major General Kombe was killed because of his close association with Augustine Lyatonga Mrema, the NCCR-Mageuzi presidential candidate in 1995, but this was not supported by the evidence in court.

Since Kombe was shot by police, despite reports that he raised his hands in surrender, there were rumours that his murder was premeditated.

Due to the rumours and the political heat surrounding the murder, President Benjamin Mkapa decided to form a commission of inquiry, which submitted its report in 1997. The report was inconclusive, stating that the government was not involved in the murder.

The commission, chaired by Justice Damian Lubuva and Justice Mussa Kipenka, who was then the Attorney General, interviewed 52 witnesses and, in 1997, submitted a report to Mkapa, concluding that the government had no role in Kombe's death.

To date, the report of the commission, like some of the other commissions that have been established to investigate matters that arouse strong emotions, remains a well-kept secret.

In 1998, the then Member of Parliament for Temeke, Dar es Salaam, Augustine Mrema, raised the issue in Parliament that Kombe's death was part of a planned assassination by the government, but he was unable to prove his allegations.

Despite the report of the commission and the evidence presented in court regarding Kombe's murder, there are still reservations about the murder.

How the team of detectives was formed

On the night of June 30, 1996, and the following day, news spread of the shooting death of Lieutenant General Kombe, who had served as the fifth director of TISS.

At the time, social media was not as prevalent as it is today, and mobile phones were not yet widely available, but still, the news spread like wildfire. In Moshi town, people gathered in groups to discuss what had happened.

Reports claim that police had shot Kombe, even after he had gotten out of the car and raised his hands in surrender, and his body was taken to the Mawenzi Hospital mortuary.

At the time, police believed they had killed a notorious car thief and were boasting about their success in capturing a Nissan Patrol car with the licence plate TZG 50, which had been stolen in Dar es Salaam.

It was not until the Kilimanjaro Regional Police Commander received a call from a man who identified himself as Iwisi Shoo, who told him that the car they had seized was not the right one and the man they had killed was not a thief; instead, it was Lt Gen Kombe, the former TISS director.

That is when the police realised that they had killed a retired Lt General of the Tanzania People's Defence Forces (TPDF), who had served as the director of TISS from 1983 to 1995.

The body was then transferred to the Kilimanjaro Christian Medical Centre (KCMC) to be preserved pending other legal procedures and funeral arrangements.

However, it was later revealed that Kombe's car, with the licence plate TZD 8592, was similar to Ladwa's car and that the police in Dar es Salaam had arrested it a few days earlier and released it after being satisfied with investigations.

Although Kombe and his family were from Kilimanjaro, they had a house in Dar es Salaam.

As the police continued their investigation, they received intelligence that the thief who had stolen the car had taken it to Kilimanjaro, so the office of the regional police commander in Dar es Salaam sent two police officers to Kilimanjaro.

According to the ruling of the Court of Appeal No. 8 of 1998 issued by three judges sitting in Arusha and delivering its judgement on March 16, 1992, the detectives were Sergeant Thomson Mensah and Corporal Juma Mswa.

The ruling was handed down by judges Lameck Mfalila, Barnabas Samatta, and Kahwa Lugakingira based on the death sentence issued on January 26, 1998, by Judge Buxton Chipeta against two officers, Corporal Juma Mswa and Corporal Mataba Matiku.

According to the documents of the Court of Appeal, Sergeant Thomson Mensah and Corporal Juma Mswa left Dar es Salaam for Kilimanjaro Region with another car that belonged to Ladwa, driven by his driver, Ismail Katembo.

The driver was later used to identify the stolen car, and the three arrived in Moshi on June 27, 1996, and were reported to the Kilimanjaro Regional Police Headquarters. They were received by the RCO, who decided to reinforce them.

They were then joined by three other detectives: Corporal Elisante Tarimo, who was the second accused; Corporal Chediel Elinisafi, who later became the fourth accused; and Corporal Mataba Matiku, who was the fifth accused in the case.

The detectives were given a Sub Machine Gun (SMG) No. 1270 with 30 rounds of ammunition, which was carried by Mataba Matiku, while Sergeant Thomson Mensah and Corporal Juma Mswa each had a pistol with eight rounds of ammunition.

Corporal Elisante Tarimo and Chediel Elinisafi did not have any weapons.

Therefore, the team of detectives began a search for a car owned by Ladwa, a Nissan Patrol with licence plate TZG 50, which was similar to the car of Lieutenant General Kombe, TZD 8592, which had been impounded in Dar es Salaam and released.

On that day, June 30, 1996, at 4 p.m., while on a search mission for the Ladwa car in Shiri Njoro village on the Moshi-Arusha road, they saw Kombe's car.

The driver, Ismail Katembo, who is now deceased, gave a shout of surprise, saying that the car in front of them coming from the Arusha-Moshi road was the car they were looking for, so he flashed his lights to stop, but the driver did not stop.

The police turned their car around and started chasing Kombe's car, which was the same colour as the DW Ladwa car they were looking for, and while chasing Kombe’s car, they started shooting at it to force the driver to stop.

Ladwa’s car, TZG 50, had been stolen on June 24, 1996.

At this point, Kombe did not know that this would be the end of his journey on earth.

Instead of stopping, he passed the police car and turned left, entering a side road. The police car turned around and chased Kombe's car, believing it was a dangerous criminal they were looking for.

The car stopped after hitting a tree. The bullets fired by the third accused, Corporal Juma Mswa, and the fifth accused, Corporal Mataba Matiku, hit Kombe and killed him instantly.

After the killing, a report was sent to the Regional Crime Officer (RCO) in Kilimanjaro, informing him that the stolen car had been found and that the dangerous suspect had been killed in action.

However, shortly after the RCO was informed of this, he received another phone call from a man named Iwisi Shoo, who informed him that the Ladwa car that had been stolen in Dar es Salaam had not yet been found. This is when all five police officers and the driver were arrested.

Witness testimony

Roseleen Kombe, the wife of Lieutenant General Kombe, who was with him in the car, testified and explained that when the Ladwa car, which was the same colour as theirs, was stolen, they were in Dar es Salaam.

It was due to the colour similarity that their car was suspected, arrested by the police in Dar es Salaam, later found to be innocent, and returned to them.

She narrated before Judge Chipeta that on June 30, 1996, she returned to Moshi and found her husband at their home in Mailisita village. At 4 p.m., she and her husband left home in the car to go to Moshi.

Along the way, they had an appointment to meet their new employee, but after travelling for a while, she saw a car coming towards them with four people.

Before they reached them, her husband, who was driving the car, signalled that he was turning left, but they did not go far when she heard gunfire and one of the bullets hit her husband on the shoulder.

According to Roseleen, her husband advised them to get out of the car and run, and she got out and started running, but in the middle of running, she fell, got up again, and continued running.

Roseleen told the court that she heard the people who were attacking them say "There were two of them", and all the time she and her husband believed they had been attacked by robbers who wanted to steal their car.

She explains that she continued running until she reached a house and hid behind a parked car, where she stayed until she was sure the situation had calmed down before she decided to come out of hiding.

When she came out of hiding, she heard people saying, "Too many robbers; you lose your life for a car," and that's when she realised her husband had been killed.

The postmortem report revealed that the deceased's body had nine bullet holes, four from where the bullets entered and four from where they exited. The bullets hit the deceased in the chest and abdomen, killing him instantly.

According to the examination, the killers attacked him at a distance of no more than 30 metres or less, and that alone proved that there was an intention to kill him, and all the bullets that entered the body came out through the bones.

In addition to Roseleen Kombe, the prosecution had more than 15 witnesses, and after closing their evidence, the court found that the five accused had a case to answer.

This is after the sixth accused, Ismail Katembo, who was driving the police officers, died in custody.

To be continued..........................