Stakeholders: End death penalty

Dar es Salaam. Lawyers have continued to raise their voices on why the government should abolish the death penalty.

The call was made to compliment President John Magufuli’s stance that he will not execute death sentence during his tenure.

The statement was made on Monday at the State House during the swearing-in event of the Chief Justice, Prof Ibrahim Juma.

Dr Magufuli insisted that he was not ready to sign an execution warrant to offenders who have been sentenced to death, suggesting that the judiciary should not bother sending him proposals to approve the penalty.

“I’m always afraid of seeing people die, so I won’t approve death penalties during my tenure,” said President Magufuli.

Speaking to The Citizen, lawyers said the death penalty law should be amended before long and furthermore suggested for a countrywide debate on the matter.

A Dodoma based advocate, who is also a lecturer at the College of Business Education (CBE), Mr Adrian Ndunguru said it is high time the government considered amending the law.

He said, instead of keeping the convicts for a long time waiting for the execution of the sentence, the government should review the penalty to be in line with what international organisations on human rights advocate for.

“Staying in the prisons for a long time waiting for an unknown day of being executed is a bad thing. They are tortured psychologically, which is against human rights,” he said.

According to him, in Africa a lot of leaders seem to be ready for the abolition of death penalty because it has not been executed for a long time, however nobody is ready to start the process.

“Everyone is waiting for others to start, but I’m optimistic that one day all countries will abolish this penalty,” he said.

He added that the country has signed various international protocols and agreements on the protection and promotion of human rights.

“Even our constitution guarantees the right to life, so we are obliged to implement his effectively,” he added.

His views were echoed by the assistant lecturer of law at the University of Iringa, Mr Henry Mwinuka, who also expressed his optimism that the government would amend the law.

He said, executing death penalty does not provide justice to the family or relatives of the victims that is why for the past two decades nobody has been executed.

“I concur with President Magufuli’s stance. He was right saying that the execution of the sentence is scary and it won’t happen during his term despite having powers to grant permission for executions. Let’s hope that he keeps his word,” he said.

He went on to suggest that the process of abolishing the penalty should not be handled by politicians and activists alone, but wananchi should also participate.

For his part, a Tanga based advocate, Mr Ezekia Sallah said despite the difficulty that the president is facing in authorising executions, Dr Magufuli was not supposed to declare his stance publicly.

According to him, President Magufuli’s stance can in one way or another encourage people to commit more crimes knowing that they will only be jailed.

“For me, I think he should not have said it publicly. He should have remained mum and let what he believes in to be implemented silently,” he said.

The Legal and Human Centre (LHRC) through its executive director, Dr Hellen Kijo-Bisimba, said the head of state’s statement was encouraging, adding that he should now initiate the process of abolishing the law.

She said the third and fourth phase president’s position on death sentence was known in spite of the fact that they did not declare publicly. President Magufuli has publicly declared his position, but he should go beyond that,” she said.

The human rights body also suggested that as the Head of the State, President Magufuli should influence changes to make the job easy for judges and magistrates.