Why rights activists want death penalty abolished

Dar es Salaam. Human rights activists in Tanzania have called on the next Legislature to make abolition of the death penalty its top agenda.

The activists made the call under the umbrella of the World Coalition Against Death Penalty as they commemorated the 18th World Day Against the Death Penalty yesterday, a day before global celebrations take place today.

“Although for many years we have been striving for the abolition of the penalty in the country, we hope that a day will come when that goal will be achieved,” said Legal and Human Rights Centre (LHRC) executive director Anna Henga in an interview.

In Tanzania, the group says, more than 500 prisoners are on death row - and that number is growing.

While the President has stated that he would not sign any death warrant, the activists says the courts have continued to send more people to death row to await the hangman’s noose.

The courts are left with little or no choice as the country’s Penal Code still provides for a mandatory death penalty for certain crimes. “So, where should change start from? From the people and Parliament,” said Ms Henga.

She also told The Citizen that they have prepared a special paper for submission to the President after the upcoming polls. “For instance, President John Magufuli has been the advocate for victims of this punishment. He forgave some of them during his tenure. So, we believe that through the document we will be handing over will speed up the process,”she noted. Rights activists also said the death penalty did not have any deterrent value and that the punishment could be imposed on an innocent person.

“There are cases where people have been mistakenly convicted elsewhere because of improper confessions, false identification, suppression or fabrication of evidence or even for being poorly defended,” said Mr Jebra Kambole, a lawyer.

The theme for this year reads: ‘Access to counsel-A matter of life or death,’ Mr Kambole said that in striving to see the death penalty abolished, there was need to also ensure that there was access to effective legal representation in the country.

“Without equal legal representation during arrest, detention, trial and post-trial, due process cannot be guaranteed, thus the consequences from such a gap can be worse,” he said.

He said, despite the existence of the legal aid law in the country since 2017, people still continue to be legally injured, something that according to him should not exist.

“Despite having it, the legal aid law is not enforced. As we fight for the abolition of the death penalty, we have also to deal with these kind of challenges as well,” he reminded.

For his part, the executive director of the Children Education Society (Cheso) who collaborated with the LHRC to organize the event, Mr Richard Shilamba, used the opportunity to urge the community to stop committing crimes because the situation affects children mentally, academically and their development.

“Children of parents who have been sentenced to death are more likely to be affected than those whose parents have been sentenced to a normal imprisonment, “he said.

He said their institution has witnessed how children were abused after their parents or guardians were sentenced to death.

“We have seen that these children have not been empowered by the community to raise their voices against party leaders and the government as well as the community at large to take immediate action to reduce the impact of the death penalty on children,” he said.