PLEASE SAVE THESE CHILDREN

11,The age of the oldest child of Ms Saada Masoud King’ombe, who is the mother of four boys and two girls

Dar es Salaam. Every second, someone, somewhere, is praying to God and is hopeful that the Creator is listening and will answer the prayers.That, apparently, is what influenced Dar es Salaam resident Ms Saada Masoud King’ombe to pick ‘Godlisten’ as the name of one of her children.‘Godlisten’ sounds as rational as, say, “Godbless”, and so does ‘Try’, the name of another of Saada’s children.

The mother’s seemingly strange choice of names for her offspring nonetheless arouses curiosity. The curiosity may be resolved – at least partially – by Saada’s strange, unconventional lifestyle which defines her seven-member family.

The family has two ‘homes’. The mother, four boys and two girls aged between two months and 11 years, spend much of their daytime in the shade of a baobab tree along Ocean Road in Dar es Salaam.

The backyard of a garage in a location whose pronounced landmarks are Gymkhana Club and a five-star hotel, is the nighttime ‘home’ for the family.

Many sympathizers, amongst whom are those who regularly donate cash, food and other basic provisions to the haggard-looking seven-some, are upset by lack of intervention by authorities associated with such situations.

They are particularly disturbed by the negative physical, mental and psychological impacts of the lifestyle on the children, over whom the mother is as protective as a lioness is to her cubs.

A pump attendant at a petrol station not far from the family’s after-sunset home, Saada often left her children to engage in nightlife adventures.


“She returns before day break, assembles the kids and shepherds them to the baobab tree base,” explained the pump attendant who wished not to be named.

It is a life cycle that the eldest child, Diana Masoud, is desperate to be liberated from. She told The Citizen on Saturday that she would also be very happy to meet her father.

“I wish I knew my dad……I don’t know anything at all about him but my mother says he ran away when she was pregnant with me,” narrated the distraught Masoud.

Four of the children are already past school enrollment age. Diana and eight-year- old Michael, can however read and write through the efforts of their mother, a former primary school teacher. Michael speaks some smattering French and English.

Other siblings, Junior, 6, Godlisten, 4, are also slowly picking up on reading and writing skills under the mother’s tutorial.

The last two, Goodluck, 1, and Try, who is aged only two months, take turns to breastfeed from their mother who says she is keen on their upbringing. The family cooks and eats together in the shade of the tree.

Close scrutiny reveals that the grown up girl and boy are gradually blending into the groups of young drug addicts and petty criminals who prowl the beach front for potential victims to pounce upon.

Saada told this reporter that two other children were taken away by their fathers. “Every child has his or her own father, one of whom lives right here in the city.”

She said she has had relationships with men of different nationalities who fathered the kids but all of whom vanished without trace.Her story stretches many years back when she was a married woman and a teacher in a public school. She lost her job and would-be terminal benefits over desertion charges.

She further claims that, her in-laws kicked her out of her matrimonial home in Sinza, a suburb of Dar es Salaam, over claims that she was responsible for the death of her husband in 1994.

Last week, the commissioner for Social Welfare, Mr Dunford Makala, said he had unsuccessfully tried several times to take away the children but the mother categorically refused to release them.


On the legal front, he said: “The law is very clear on this; we are just following the right procedures to see how we can take these children to safe custody, as they are leading a dangerous life.”

He said the same law also allows parents to live with their children and access them even while under care by other bodies.

The Law of the Child Act, 2009 identifies a child in need of rescue and how that could be achieved.
It declares in section 4(2); “The best interest of a child shall be the primary consideration in all actions concerning a child whether undertaken by public or private social welfare institutions, courts or administrative bodies.”

And section 7(2) a-c spells out that a court could deprive parents or guardians the right to remain with their children if they exposed them to harm, abuse and again if it was not in their best interest.

Section 16 numerously spells out circumstances for care and protection of a child, that includes when a child has a parent who does not exercise proper guardianship, lacks a home or fixed place of abode and the parents’ habit is unfit to care for them.The same section applies where a parent(s) is a destitute, exposes children to moral or physical danger and engages in soliciting for alms.

The government, through the social welfare department and the police, are largely expected to lead in the enforcement of the law. Other child welfares organisations and agencies may also lend their input.The Citizen on Saturday has established that security personnel are pursuing a theory that Saada could be involved in some suspicious activities.

“She may be using the family as a smokescreen for other things….because her case is beyond that of a mere beggar,” explained a security source without elaborating.It was established that every time Saada was repatriated to her rural home in Kigoma, she quickly returned to the city.

Human rights agencies have reportedly also raised concerns with the department over their failure to act with complete resolve to save the six children.

BFTZ SHARING IS CARING