JULY- 2006 Juma as he reflected on his past and expressed his thoughts and hopes for the future:
I know that for myself, I would like to become a doctor someday. Shit. As a doctor, I could help people
with their suffering. I can’t do this [gesturing toward the streets] for the rest of my life.
Truly, it will kill me. No, this is all practice to become self-reliant. This life on the streets is like a teacher, it is like school, eh? I am much different from how I was when you last saw me. I am a tough nyenga boy! [Laughs]. I am much stronger and self-reliant than I was before.
AUG- 2006 Was caught sleeping on the rooftop of a
downtown shop by a group of sungu sungu. They beat Juma severely, dumped him upside down in the open sewers that line the city’s streets stole what few possessions he had, and turned him over to the local police. The police immediately sent Juma to Butimba Prison on the outskirts of the city.
Juma was placed in a cell with two men who beat and raped him repeatedly over a period of three days before he was released.
August 2006: Juma was in severe pain and attempted to get
admitted to Mwanza’s Bugando Hospital but was unable to do so because he could not pay the (equivalent of US $5.00) admittance fee. On his last night alive (two days following his release from Butimba Prison), several of Juma’s friends brought him once again to the gates of Bugando Hospital. However, they were chased off by a group of sungu sungu and forced to abandon him because he was in too much pain to move.
August 2006: Juma’s body was found the following day on the banks of the Mirongo River about a quarter-mile from where he was last seen by his friends.