Impact of interventions of the murder of people with albinisms in Lake Victoria zone: a case of Shinyanga region

The aim of study was to investigate the impact of interventions of the murder of PWAs in Lake Victoria particularly Shinyanga Region. The study was conducted in two Districts namely; Shinyanga and Kahama Districts. A total number of 100 respondents participated in this study, two focus group discussions sessions were conducted, each involving 8 participants and key informant interview was done to three traditional doctors used for capturing qualitative responses whereas data from 52 PWAs and 29 stakeholders of PWAs including heads of households of PWAs, friends of PWAs, journalists, and advocacy officers were collected by using the structured questionnaires for the collection of primary data while documentary review was applied to collect secondary data. The study has revealed that, in Tanzania there is a high rate of murder of PWAs principally for ritual purposes. This belief has directly led to the murder of PWAs by people desperate for success in the form of good luck and money. The core of this practice is witchdoctors. About 73 PWAs have been killed. A more accurate estimate of murders relating to PWAs would be considerably higher given that many cases are not reported. Children are the majority of victims targeted and killed with roughly two-thirds of recorded murders. The Murder of PWAs has caused depopulation, increased the cost for internally displaced persons, less engagement in economic activities, and technically made PWAs living in a state of great fear, which brought up hostility, divorce and separation. The eradication of such killings has become very difficult and complicated process. The lack of awareness of some family members and relatives of PWAs, poverty, low quality of settlements, absence of witchcraft law, inadequate government readiness, increasing stigmatisms, to mention a few make interventions to fail and ultimately increase the murder. The study recommends on the urgent measures to assess and address the situation in asylums where PWAs are centered, to enact witchcraft law and provide public awareness, strong collaboration of all stakeholders, political will, and equal access to socio economic and political opportunities.