BY ForeTVHub Press

Tanzania Authorities are being criticised for taking time to give update on the number of confirmed death at the March 21 memorial for late president John Magufuli

Police commander Lazaro Mambosasa said 37 people were injured in the incident at Uhuru Stadium in the business capital, Dar es Salaam, but all have been discharged from local hospitals.

One family lost five relatives in the stampede, and a house attendant was declared missing for two days before family members found him dead at a hospital in the city.

Human Right activists are demanding that those behind the incident and delay of information should be held accountable and charged to court.

Rugemeleza Nshala, president of the Tanganyika Law Society, said authorities should explain why they have taken so long to tell people about the incident. There were only rumors on social media for days, he said. If the police fail, he added, it is not right, because article 14 of the constitution guarantees the right for people to live and be given security.

Some Dar es Salaam residents blame authorities for not taking proper precautions in organizing the event.

The stadium was too small to accommodate the crowd, said Juliana Mselle of Dar es Salaam, adding that organizers had to tell citizens that only a certain number of people would be allowed in.

Yasin Abdallah said the delay of information about the stampede also raises concerns about the exact death toll. 

People would like to know their loved ones’ whereabouts, he said, but authorities didn’t get the information out early.

For two days, mourners lined the streets of Dar es Salaam to pay their respects to Magufuli, who authorities said died of heart failure in a local hospital on March 17. 

Magufuli, who was 61, was laid to rest in his hometown of Chato in northwestern Tanzania on March 26.