Dar es Salaam.

 President Samia Suluhu Hassan’s efforts to promote justice

delivery are laudable, lawyers have said as they heap praise on the leadership

style of the sixth Head of State during her first 100 days in the highest office in

the land.

Lawyers, who spoke to The Citizen, cited examples of appointments of Sylvester

Mwakitalu as Director of Public Prosecution (DPP), Camilius Wambura as

Director of Criminal Investigations (DCI) and Salum Rashid Hamduni as the

director general of the Prevention and Combating of Corruption Bureau (PCCB)

as apt.

In that regard, they advised President Hassan to amend the laws and related

regulatory frameworks, guidelines and procedures to bolster sustainability of the

achievements.

The lawyers commended the sixth-phase government on achievements that have

been recorded in the first 100 days of President Hassan’s administration.

President Hassan was formally sworn in on March 19 succeeding her

predecessor, the late President John Magufuli, who had died from natural causes

two days earlier – and was buried at his home town of Chato in Geita Region on

March 26.

Lawyer Dominic Ndunguru said President Hassan’s swift move to appoint new

top executives in the justice dispensing stakes has started to bear fruit.
“There was serious outcry against case-framing against innocent citizens –

including cases of alleged economic sabotage, in which the victims are

automatically denied bail,” Mr Ndunguru said.

“But, the new presidential appointments have already resulted in some of the

cases being suddenly dropped, with accused persons who had been languishing in

remand prison being set free just as soon,” he said.

Mr Ndunguru said this has helped decongest the country’s prisons and reduced

the government’s expenditure in taking care of the remandees.

“The Head of State should now focus on amending the laws so as to prevent

suspects from unnecessarily being held in remand prisons and encourage the

provision of bail to bona fide suspects as a natural and constitutional right of all

citizens,” he said – stressing that “laws considered unfriendly to the provision of

justice should be scrapped or amended accordingly to preserve these

achievements for many years to come.”

According to him, President Hassan’s leadership is also expected to improve the

vetting systems for candidates being considered for appointment to the judicial

system – making it mandatory that all unqualified candidates are unquestionably

dropped. This would uphold the respect of the appointing authority – and that of

the Presidency, at the end of it all.

This is if only because it is the appointing authority that will be blamed, and its

image tarnished, if and when a leader violates the Codes of Conduct while in

public office.

For his part, Advocate Benedict Ishabakaki said the decision by the new DPP

Mwakitalu to withdraw some court cases and let go free the wrongly-accused

persons – some of whom had spent years behind bars – was long-overdue as it

was unnecessary and unjust.

He, therefore, advised the Head of State to build strong institutions which would

promote good governance and discourage selfish interests among future public

leaders.

“However, laws, regulations and guidelines on criminal cases should be amended

to ensure that suspects are arrested and/or arraigned in court only after

completion of thorough investigations,” he said.

Another lawyer, Mr Jeremiah Mtobesya, said the recent appointment of judges of

the Court of Appeal and the High Court of Tanzania will significantly accelerate

the hearing of criminal and other court cases, a major judicial shortcoming down

the years.

“The new DPP’s approach is commendable – especially for cases termed

‘unbailable,’ as well as dropping some cases whose accused persons were

languishing in remand prisons,” he said.

He suggested that major amendments be made to the Criminal Procedure Act

(CPA), among which would provide for the arrest and/or arraignment of suspects

in court only after thorough investigations have been conducted and completed.”

In addition to commending the appointments made recently of the High Court

and Court of Appeal judges, Mr Mtobesya emphasised the need to increase the

numbers of the judges – and also review the Lands Tribunal procedures.

In her maiden speech in Parliament on April 22, President Hassan pledged to

cooperate with the Judiciary in strengthening its systems of dispensing justice,

including improving court infrastructures, increasing the human resource, and

promoting greater use of state-of-the-art information and communication

technologies.

“The Judiciary and other related institutions should focus on dispensing justice

to citizens,” the President stressed – and, more or less in the same breath,

promised to continue strengthening the dispensing of justice and overseeing

institutions, including the Offices of the Attorney General (AG) and the Solicitor

General (SG), the DPP, DCI, PCCB and the Prisons Department.

In another recent development, on June 16, the Kisutu Resident Magistrate’s

Court in Dar es Salaam dropped the economic sabotage case (Number 27/2017)

against the owner of Independent Power Tanzania Limited (IPTL), Mr Harbinder

Singh Sethi, after he successfully concluded a plea-bargaining agreement with the

DPP.

The Kisutu Court ordered Mr Sethi to pay Sh26. 9 billion in compensation to the

government after finding him guilty of pocketing $22.199 million and Sh309. 461

billion by deceit.

Mr Sethi paid Sh200 million as the first instalment, and pledged to complete

payment in the next 12 months during which his IPTL plant and a parcel of land

located in the Kunduchi Salasala area will be held as ‘sureties.’

It is significant that all this took place within the first 100 days of President

Hassan’s administration.

In another recent decision, terrorism charges against 36 ‘Uamsho’ (‘Awakening’)

Muslim clerics were dropped on the same day (June 16, 2021) after the DPP

expressed his lack of intention to continue with the case against the accused who

had spent seven years in remand prison.

In the event, Clerics Sheikh Farid Hadi Ahmed and Mselem Ali Mselem were the

first to secure their freedom from jail.

“It’s true they have been set free. I have dropped all the charges against them,”

said Mr Mwakitalu in a telephone interview.

The clerics were accused of committing terrorism offences between January 2013

and June, 2014, contrary to Section 27(c) of the Terrorism Act, 2002.

Also, the Kisutu Resident Magistrate’s Court lifted the Certificate of Bail objection

imposed by former DPP Biswalo Mganga on former Reli Assets Holding

Company (Rahco) chief executive officer Benhardard Tito and two of his co-

accused.

Mr Tito and the co-accused – a former lawyer for the company, Emmanuel

Massawe, and a representative of Rothschild (South Africa) Proprietary Limited,

Kanji Mwinyijuma – are facing eight charges before the court.

The charges include occasioning the government a loss of Sh1.2 billion;

conspiring to commit offences, and abuse of power in a transaction relating to

upgrading of the central railway.

The DPP also dropped charges facing 14 suspects of trafficking from rural areas

to urban areas of the country for indecent jobs.

In the decision made on June 22, 2021 by the Kisutu Resident Magistrate’s Court,

the suspects were facing 41 charges including human trafficking; tax evasion, and

occasioning a loss of Sh31 million to the Tanzania Revenue Authority (TRA).

On June 18, 2021, the Kisutu Resident Magistrate’s Court dropped economic

sabotage case number 124/2019 against Marijani Msofe (alias ‘Papa Msofe,’ 53)

and his four co-accused persons.

The DPP said he no longer intended to continue with the case against Mr Msofe

and his co-accused, namely Wenceslaus Mtu (49); Advocate Mwesigwa Mhingo

(36); Josephine Haule (38) and Mr Fadhil Mganga (61).

The suspects were collectively accused of obtaining Sh943 million through

deceitful means.

Finally, on June 22, 2021, the High Court of Tanzania overturned the decision of

the Advocate Ethics Committee to ban a former Tanzania Law Society (TLS)

President, Ms Fatma Karume, from practising law on Mainland Tanzania – and

ordered that the decision be referred to the Ethics Committee, thus giving her the

opportunity to defend herself.