Reform at top of new TLS president’s agenda

What you need to know:

  • Dr Rugemeleza Nshala, an experienced advocate in environmental laws who was on Saturday elected the President of the Tanganyika Law Society (TLS), has promised to push for accelerated criminal justice reform.

Arusha. The Tanganyika Law Society (TLS) has vowed to push for accelerated criminal justice reform.

Newly elected TLS president Rugemeleza Nshala said reform should be speeded up to ensure justice for all.

“It’s a pity that some criminal suspects are remanded for up to four or five years without their cases being heard due to incomplete investigations.

“When they are finally charged and found not guilty, they are not eligible for compensation for the suffering they were subjected to while behind bars” he told The Citizen.

Dr Nshala, who was elected on Saturday, decried the pace at which criminal justice reform was moving.

“At least the situation is encouraging in Zanzibar, where the process has started. This is not the case with the Mainland,” he said.

Dr Nshala added that the bar association would continue to advise the government appropriately on contracts entered into with foreign companies on the extractive industry.

Dr Nshala was elected TLS president after garnering 647 votes to defeat four other aspirants in an election in which a total of 1,217 votes were cast.

The other candidates were Mr Godwin Ngwilimi, who got 354 votes, Mr Godfrey Wasonga (132), Mr Gaspar Mwanalyela (58) and Mr John Seka (28).

His election to the helm of the bar association has rekindled memories of his agitation for justice in the extractive industry in the 1990s along with Mr Tundu Lissu, who was TLS president from 2017 to 2018.

A graduate from the Law School (formerly Faculty of Law) of the University of Dar es Salaam, he has been especially active in legal issues pertaining to natural resources, especially minerals.

In the early 1990s, after graduating from UDSM, he and fellow young graduates, including Mr Lissu, teamed up to form a lawyers’ environmental advocacy group.

The Lawyers’ Environmental Action Team (Leat) was the first public interest environmental law organisation in Tanzania.

By the late 1990s and early 2000s, it had become active both within the country and beyond in advocating for justice in natural resources income sharing.