By ADAM IHUCHA-- Tanzania is facing pressure as activists demand for the
abolition of the death penalty in an attempt to save hundreds of death row inmates.
A fortnight ago the Constitutional Review Commission (CRC) unveiled
the second draft Constitution before the President Jakaya Kikwete, but anti-death
penalty campaigners say the blueprint has retained capital punishment against
their expectations.
Article 72. -(1) (k) of the second draft stipulates that:
“The President in his position as the Head of State shall have the power and
duties to, among others, (k) endorse the execution of the death penalty as
issued in accordance to the laws of the country.”
Annah Mghwira, a human rights activist said that the clause is conflicting to Article 24, which guarantees one’s right to life and protection from the state and the community in accordance to the laws of the country.
Annah Mghwira, a human rights activist said that the clause is conflicting to Article 24, which guarantees one’s right to life and protection from the state and the community in accordance to the laws of the country.
“Enough is enough for the death penalty in our own land because
two wrongs cannot make right. The punishment doesn’t augur well as it tends to
stir hatred among the members of the society,” Ms. Mgwhira said.
She said that they are weighing options to push through the
constituent Assembly due to convene next month (February) to abolish the
capital sentence.
The Legal and Human Right Centre (LHRC)’s Executive Director
Dr Helen Kijo said that members of the constituent Assembly ought to remove the
Article in the draft constitution that provides powers to the President to sign
execution order.
Otherwise, Dr. Kijo was of the view that death row prisoners
should be substituted with life imprisonment sentences to give them the
opportunity to reform.
Statistics from Tanzania Prison Services (TPS) show that as
of October 15, 20013 there were 364 inmates in various prisons waiting for the execution.
According to the TPS legal commissioner, (CP), Dr.
Juma Malewa 86 out of the country’s 364 death row prisoners have appealed
before the Court of Appeal Tanzania.
However, legal experts say that fewer appeals from the court
of appeal are decided in favor of appellants by the court of appeal.
In mates who have lost in their appeals suffer physiological
disorders for not knowing their fate.
In addition, congested and underfunded prisons incur more
expenses in maintaining them.
Though data
are not readily available, but it is understood, during the first phase
government a few death sentences were carried out.
However, this
trend had changed as several death sentences have been executed during the
second phase government.
Intelligence sources say that the third and fourth regime
under President Benjamen Mkapa and the incumbent head of the state, Jakaya
Kikwete, have never signed the execution order.
The Attorney General, Justice Frederick Werema, could not
explain why Presidents have not signed execution orders as the law provides.
Justice Werema added that the fact that Tanzania follows
customs and moral in its leadership it might be a source of making it hard for
the two presidents to execute capital punishment.
“In the views of human rights activists, Presidents’
hesitations indicate unwritten moratorium by Tanzania in response to
international criticism” says Law Lecturer at Tumaini Makumira University,
Elifuraha Laltaika.
The United Nations and other International human rights
institutions condemn death sentence as being cruel, inhuman and degrading.
"In
democratic societies, death penalty is regarded as a barbaric form of
punishment” he says.
Amnesty
International has pleaded to all civilized and democratic states to abolish
death penalty.
During its
1977 conference at Stockholm a declaration was adopted on the abolition of the
death Penalty. This is known as declaration of Stockholm, 1977."
The Stockholm
conference on the Abolition of the Death Penalty composed of 200 delegates and
participants from Africa, Asia, Europe, The Middle East, North and South
America and the Caribbean region.
However, the Law Reform Commission of Tanzania conducted a
survey on the abolition of the death sentence way back in 1993 and majority of
Tanzanians prefer its retention in the laws.
Death penalty
was introduced in Mainland Tanzania by the Colonial rule.
The
legislation was passed to apply section 302 of the Indian Penal Code, to the
territory and such legislation was replaced by section 2 of the Punishment for
Murder Ordinance, No. 28 of the Tanganyika Territory, in 1921.
In Mainland
Tanzania the only offences, which attract capital punishment are murder
pursuant to sections 196 and 197 of Penal Code, (Cap. 16).
In the case of
murder it is mandatory for the High court to impose the death penalty, while on
the other hand, it is discretionary in the cases of offences of treason and
treasonable felonies.
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