State can’t be judge in its own case

If the stories doing the rounds are true – that persons who were “robbed” (for lack of a better term) by persons operating as a Special Tax Collection Task Force – then such public officials need to re-think their roles.

Also, Tanzanians need to rethink the kind of nation we are building, and whether or not the extant Constitution can turn that dream nation into reality on the ground.

If calls for a ‘new constitution’ are the problem, then let us just agree that outdated laws can be overhauled to enable the birth of a new nation.

That said, the aforementioned Task Force, whose mode of operation was the use of force and other extra-judicial means, helped feed the need for a new Constitution rather than stymie it.

We are being candid here. The role of the Judiciary, the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) and the Police Force are clear, or so some of us thought! These roles are the same in most world countries – Tanzania not excepted!

In Commonwealth democracies on whose laws we have largely based our laws, these three institutions – much as they work for the same master – are supposed to be independent from any external forces. They may be Inter-dependent; but they must also be independent.

Someone we know lost Sh2.8 billion to these state operatives besides spending two-and-a-half years in remand prison on trumped-up charges. We seem determined not to learn from history – and are, thus, we become victims of its repetitiveness.

In Kenya next door, during the reign of the late President Daniel arap Moi, state operatives committed many blunders, including detention of citizens without proper trial, and used law courts to mete out unjust penalties, including detention and confiscation of property decisions throughout the 24-year “Moi error” rule.

Hundreds – if not thousands – including veteran pan-Africanist Raila Odinga, have been compensated by the state for the ills that were allegedly committed against them by the Jomo Kenyatta and Moi administrations, including severe personal injury and loss of income.

It was Kenyatta and Moi whose administrations were culpable. But, decades later, it is the Kenyan taxpayer and other citizens who are now bearing the brunt of state brutality and strong-arm tactics used in the name of loyalty to the government: loyalty brutally demanded by the sitting President and his minions.

The Chief Justice, Prof Ibrahim Juma, is reputedly a noble person. His intentions seem noble. But he cannot escape blame for presiding over a Judiciary which issues orders to keep political opposition Members of Parliament in remand prison on trumped-up charges under the guise that “it was legal.”

Indeed, the apartheid system of government was legal – but if only because it was on South Africa’s statute books. But, it was not right or just.

The former Director of Public Prosecutions, who is now a judge of the High Court of Tanzania, Biswalo Mganga, was a most energetic DPP when the Special Tax Collection Task Force was operating.

If we do not discuss these things, we risk the future of our motherland becoming a nation in which we are doomed to repeat past mistakes. As soon as a DPP agrees to open charges of economic sabotage against anyone with whom the state has a beef, you are opening yourself to a legacy that shall never be erased; a legacy of infamy.

The Presidency changes over time. It is, therefore, important for DPPs, Chief Justices, Solicitors-General and Police Inspectors-General to see themselves as office holders on behalf of the people.

The state does not own the people; no government does that, perhaps with the possible exception of North Korea.

Our law courts must know that even the dreams of potential-cum-prospective investors – internal and external – can be smothered because our disputes-resolution mechanisms do not meet the criterion of being above-board.

The choice is entirely ours to make… And, this only requires a citizenry that believes in the fidelity of law as the arbiter in disputes among the people – and between the state and the citizenry.