DAR ES SALAAM, Feb. 12 -- IT is no longer a secret that predatory lenders have declared silent war on the poor and it is time the government responded with decisive force. Across towns and villages, illegal financial operators commonly known as “kausha damu” are trapping desperate citizens in vicious cycles of debt. They promise quick cash with little paperwork, only to impose crushing interest rates, humiliating collection tactics, and terms designed to strip borrowers of their property. This is not enterprise. It is exploitation and we ask the government to intervene not with words, but with action.

The victims are often small traders, bodaboda riders, mama lishe, and unemployed youth trying to survive in a tight economy. A...