Last week Pinda ordered the suspension of issuance of licenses to traditional healers saying the exercise would only return after a proper way was found.

The Prime minister also cautioned the police to tighten security and apprehend those involved failing which they would also be punished.

Tanzania’s local daily, The Daily Citizen, on Friday said that the Prime minister cried in Parliament after he was asked to explain his recent remark that those involved in albinos killings should also be killed.

"It is really painful to witness the brutality being committed against the albinos. This is pure murder. As a nation, we can no longer tolerate this," he said. Pinda is said to have immediately removed his spectacles and shed tears.

According to the report, Civic United Front member of Parliament for Wawi sought a clarification from Pinda on reports that he had said during a recent public rally that people caught red-handed killing albinos should also be killed on the spot.

But the Prime minister is reported to have asked for God’s forgiveness on his remarks which one of the MPs said could undermine the rule of law and good governance.

"I seek forgiveness from God if what I said is worse than what the killers of albinos are doing to their fellow human beings,” he said.

The Prime Minister did not deny issuing the remarks but said it had been misinterpreted and that he wanted to show that the country’s government was committed to addressing the albino killings.

Fed up

"My aim was to make the culprits realize that we are now fed up with what they have been doing. I wanted them to know that we will no longer tolerate such acts," Pinda told Parliament.

Pinda said since the incidents were first reported three years ago 34 people have been killed with 28 in the past year. According to the Prime Minister 2,866 elderly people have been murdered in 10 regions in the past five years, an average of 573 a year, accused of practicing witchcraft.

Media reports in the country say that more than 30 albinos have been killed since 2006 by killers who remove their body parts which include genitals, limbs, breasts, fingers and tongues.

The body parts are said to be in high demand from people involved in mining and fishing in the Lake Victoria Zone, especially Mwanza, Shinyanga and Mara regions.

The country is said to have a population of 300,000 albinos. According to the Daily Citizen since the beginning of 2008 more than 90 suspects, including four policemen have been arrested for allegedly killing albinos.