TANZANIAN CRIMINAL LAW (original) (raw)

Criminal Justice System in Tanzania: Challenges and Solutions

Justice is neither to be denied nor delayed’ means that, order for a person to achieve justice in any country, proper laws and procedures are very important in achieving fair and proper justice to a person. Fair and proper justice (substantive justice) it is not only to the person who claimed to be offended but also to the offender himself/herself, by means of giving proper and fair decision, and fair procedure during the trial sessions. Criminal Justice System in Tanzania has a lot of challenges that in end led to injustice and unfair decisions or sometimes no decision at all, which resulted to infringement some of human rights such as torture to the offender who is waiting for a long time for the trial or decision to be made. This paper intends to explain on the nature of the Criminal Justice in Tanzania, before and after the colonialism so as to trace a number of challenges in providing fair and proper justice to both the offender and the victim. In the end the author provides for the possible solutions to overcome such challenges as explained earlier.

Managing the proceeds of crime: a critical analysis of the Tanzanian legal framework

2013

Declaration I, Zainabu Mango Diwa, declare that 'Managing the Proceeds of Crime: A Critical Analysis of the Tanzanian Legal Framework' is my own work, that it has not been submitted before for any degree or examination in any other university, and that all the sources I have used or quoted have been indicated and acknowledged as complete references.

APPLICATION OF LEGAL TECHNICALITIES AND ITS CONSEQUENCES ON THE ADMINISTRATION OF JUSTICE IN TANZANIA 1

Courts exist as civilized forums where the litigants go so as to have their legal problems sorted out, according to the law. Increasingly, by the way they apply the law, Courts are perceived today, as legal theatres, where justice is subordinated to bewildering legal technicalities, the consequence of which, most members of the laity, those non-trained in law, as well as some lawyers, are seriously contemplating resorting to self-help schemes. A litigant loses property which he knows to be his, and the opponent, through the law, acquires the right to property which he himself knows is not his. One loses a right to which he is entitled; the other acquires a right to which he is not. This paper discusses two recent decisions which, have elicited reactions, and have added a voice to the call for the reformation of the judiciary mind-set, so that it should be more focused on the overall requirement to do justice, which is its raison d'etre. It poses the questions, why should persons who knock at the doors of the Court, hoping to find justice, be punished for mistakes they did not do; why they be punished for mistakes, when it is common that human beings have a propensity to commit errors, why turn the Courts into academic institutions, where it is expected that the manipulation of legal technicalities, not equity, should win the day, sometimes, giving the right where it should not have gone? Should every slight aberration of the law, be visited with a denial of justice?

Administration of Mob Justice in Tanzania: Wither the Law Enforcement Machinery?

EASTERN AFRICA LAW REVIEW, 2015

Abstract This paper seeks to give an overview of the extent to which mob justice has permeated the fabrics of the nation. So far mob justice has been an order of the day. This is notwithstanding the fact that the country has a sound administration of criminal justice system. A survey of statistics on reported mob justice cases at police stations over the past twenty years namely, a period from year 1996 up to 2015, shows that mob justice is a countrywide problem. It has spread throughout the country. The paper has also noted that there is reluctance on the part of citizens to come forward and expose perpetrators of the malpractice thereby making it difficult for the law enforcement machinery to deal with them. The paper comes up with a number of recommendations aimed at remedying the situation.

CRIMES AND POLITICS IN TANZANIA

In a stagnant society, all efforts are focused on the preservation of the status quo and this fierce protection of the status quo will lead to large-scale crime. Gigantic scams and the growth of gangsterism are direct by products of this stagnant society. Politicians and Governments do not want these uninvestigated, though registered, crimes to stand in the way of their efforts to occupy the seat of power. K.G. Kannabiran From the above quotation, it is quite true that to conceive crimeless society is totally impossible. For those who believe in the Holy Bible even in the Heaven, a devil who was an angel acted against GOD and was punished. There is no society without crime/criminals. Professor Hart argued that, human beings are vulnerable; hence need a rule of law to maintain the society. In fact, everyone owes a certain duties to his fellow men and the same to the society. This respect is what regulates the acts of people in the society. But there are some people who deviate from these duties; it is from this concept that states had to regulate the people. Crimes and politics have become friends in this current world. Not only in Tanzania, but we have witness a number of political unrest worldwide. Look at the situation in Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, both Congo countries, Boko haram in Nigeria, we also have witness UAMSHO in Zanzibar, and latterly a number of kidnapping, assaults, battery, killings, the most current killing is that of a university student (Akwilina) in Tanzania mainland. All of these kinds of crimes and others which I did not mention them are directly resulted by political point of view. As stated above, ‘efforts are focused on the preservation of the status quo and this fierce protection of the status quo leads to large-scale crime such as murder. Fighting in the way of each party effort to occupy the seat of power. And this is all about the connection between crime and politics. Conflict within any country may happen simply because of different political ideologies. People may commit crimes because of unfair acts of some leaders or politicians, as those acts do not correspond with their political ideology. So for somehow there is a deep relationship between crime and political. This paper tries to show the connection between these two concepts, crime and politics, and how the connection of the concepts affects the society, either being involved on the criminal sub-political activity or being hurt and humiliated by such activity.

Sentencing Reform in Tanzania: Moving from Uhuru to Ubuntu?

Journal of African Law, 2022

The scholarly literature on sentencing reform has largely overlooked the African continent. The paucity of legal scholarship is particularly striking with respect to Tanzania, one of Africa's largest and most populous countries. This article explores the first significant sentencing reform in Tanzania's history. In 2020, the Tanzanian judiciary issued a comprehensive set of sentencing guidelines for courts to follow. Until this point, sentencing was a highly discretionary stage of the criminal process, and the Tanzanian penal code offered very little guidance with respect to the exercise of that discretion. After providing a brief summary of the new sentencing regime, we explore the innovative guidance contained in the reforms. In the conclusion we discuss the extent to which the Tanzanian reforms reflect core African values of Ubuntu, or more specifically in the case of Tanzania, Ujamaa, the philosophy popularized by Tanzania's first president, Julius Nyerere.