By FAUSTINE KAPAMA-Judiciary
THE Judiciary of
Tanzania has formed a sub-committee to review and analyze the Presidential Criminal
Justice Commission’s report to determine all areas that need to be implemented
in the whole context of providing justice to the people.
This was revealed by
the Chief Justice, Prof. Ibrahim Hamis Juma after swearing in 38 new Resident
Magistrates at an event held at the High Court of Tanzania in Dar es Salaam.
"I would like to
congratulate the Committee led by Court of Appeal Justice, Dr. Gerald Ndika.
They have reviewed the report, analyzed and classified the areas related to the
Judiciary. Our committee has identified 18 areas that involve the Judiciary of
Tanzania.
"We wanted to
know which areas in the report related to the Judiciary. We also wanted to know
the recommendations that the presidential commission made about the judiciary,
what advice have they given about the judiciary, what are the things that we
need to implement," he said.
Similarly, the Chief
Justice said the Committee analyzed the areas that the Presidential Commission
had earmarked in order to improve the performance of Criminal Justice
Institutions, especially those touch the Judiciary.
"Therefore, our
Judiciary Committee identified the areas that affect other institutions, including
the judiciary. So, have also to prepare ourselves to work on those areas since
the implementation of Criminal Justice Commission report does not wait,"
Prof. Juma.
He directed the
Judges, Magistrates and Court Administrators to study the areas that the
Committee has identified so that the judiciary could start directly
implementing those that are within its power, including ones which do not
require money or discussions in meetings.
"The President's
Commission saw that we had forgotten our legal obligations. Therefore, what it
did was just to remind us to implement existing laws that do not require
meetings or money," the Chief Justice said.
He noted that the
area that touches Magistrates concerned provision of sentences where the
Presidential Commission recommended that the law be amended to give the Court
authority to consider the time of the accused person's stay in remand.
"You know our
cases take a long time, a person is arrested and stays in remand, such time is
not considered in the punishment, which is provided after the trial.
"The Commission
has reminded us that Section 172 (2) © of the Criminal Procedure Act requires
the Court to deduct the time the suspect or prisoner spent in prison when
sentencing,” the Chief Justice said.
Prof. Juma said that
they will monitor the statistics to see how well the magistrates are
implementing the Commission's proposal because such issues does not wait for
time, it was supposed to be implemented starting yesterdays.
He appealed to the
Magistrates, as they are just starting judicial works, to consider the
importance of implementing all the presidential committee recommendations which
does not require amendments of laws.
The Chief Justice
mentioned another area that is directly enforceable is the weak of imposing alternative
sentences that are provided under the law.
He pointed out that
there has been overuse of provision of custodian sentences, thus the
Presidential Commission has given a reminder to make sure magistrates give alternative
punishments.
"You know the
people sometimes complain and they like to see someone who has been accused of committing
an offence always go to prison, but as your oath says you are not supposed to
listen to such complaints if you follow the rules and procedures according to
your oaths," Prof. Juma said.
Therefore, he urged
the Magistrates to use the law to give alternative punishments and refrain from
resorting to send convicts to prisons which are overflowing to the extent that
the blame goes back to the judiciary.
The Judiciary of
Tanzania is one of the institutions that are required to implement the
recommendations of the President's Commission designed to look at how to
improve Criminal Justice Institutions in the country.
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