Who gave the quacks microphone?

TANZANIA: YOU have probably heard them before: the booming voice from a corner speaker, echoing through the street like a prophet of pain relief and that is “Meno ni hazina, using’oe meno! Meno yanatibika kwa elfu moja tu!” Cue the dramatic music and pass the herbal concoction. All this for just 1,000/-. What a bargain. Or is it?

Let us call it what it is: A public health circus run by unlicensed street healers and quack doctors who seem to have taken over our roadsides and markets. These smooth-talking fraudsters promise everything under the sun from curing toothaches to resurrecting dying dreams. And the most astonishing part? No one seems to be stopping them.

One wonders, actually-who licensed these miracle merchants? Who gave them the right to operate a “clinic” from a megaphone and a stool? How did we get to a point where a person with a loudspeaker has more influence than a trained medical professional in a hospital? What kind of nation are we building? We push kids to be scientists, yet allow fake doctors sprout like mushrooms in the rain. Are we chasing Nobel Prizes or nurturing snake oil salesmen?

It is not just about noise pollution. It is about public deception. These street “clinics” are not just annoying, they are dangerous. They discourage people from seeking help at certified hospitals, choosing instead to hand over their fate (and their 1,000/-) to someone with zero training and a talent for theatrics.

Meanwhile, Tanzania has hospitals, clinics, trained dentists and medical professionals ready and waiting to serve. Yet somehow, we have created a thriving ecosystem of backstreet medicine where faith replaces facts and hope is hawked like second-hand shoes.

But let us be honest, why do people still go to these quacks? Is it ignorance? Desperation? Or the inconvenient truth that accessing proper healthcare sometimes feels like navigating a maze with no exit? Actually, we have not reached a stage where public hospitals are overburdened, under-resourced, or poorly staffed to allow people turn to whoever will listen, even if it is a man selling herbs on a bus.

Still, two wrongs don’t make a remedy. Fake diplomas, shady backroom procedures and street-corner diagnoses are not the solution. We cannot allow snake oil salesmen to replace science, or loud voices to replace licensed voices.

It is time the government took this issue seriously. We need a health crackdown, not a health comedy. Regulate the streets. Penalise unlicensed practitioners. Close illegal clinics. And please, for the love of molars, confiscate those loudspeakers.

But enforcement alone is not enough. We must rebuild trust in our healthcare system. Make public hospitals more accessible, affordable and humane. Invest in awareness campaigns that empower citizens to seek real care, not ritual cures.

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This is a national issue, not just a dental one. Because when people lose faith in real medicine, we don’t just lose teeth, we lose lives.

So, let us fix the system. Let us silence the quacks and amplify qualified voices. Because no nation ever thrived on fake doctors, phony cures and loudspeakers promising salvation for a thousand bob. Your health is not a street show. Let us start acting like it.