Rights activists protest passing of statistics, cyber crimes bills

Jamii Forum founder Maxence Melo speaks during a press conference in Dar es Salaam yesterday.  Next to him are National Coordinator of the Tanzania Human Rights Defenders Coalition (THRDC),  Onesmo ole Ngurumwa (centre) and Sikika head of Programmes, Patrick Kinemo (right). PHOTO| VENANCE NESTORY 

In Summary

• The activists are calling upon President Jakaya Kikwete not to assent to the Bills into law
• The Tanzania Human Rights Defenders Coalition (THRD-Coalition) is a non-government, non-partisan organization of caring and dedicated people committed to promoting  the rights of HRDs in Tanzania.  Our members bring together years of experience, commitment and action in the field of human rights. Every day, Human Rights Defenders (HRDs) are at risk while promoting and protecting human rights. So at THRD-Coalition we strive to ensure and enhance the safety and security of HRDs in Tanzania by working closely with all relevant stakeholders

Dar es Salaam. Human rights activists have blamed  the government over the new Statistics and Cyber Crime Bills approved by Parliament saying they are a violation to human rights.

The activists are calling upon President Jakaya Kikwete not to assent to the Bills into law saying doing so would discourage citizen journalism as well as add draconian laws to the already existing ones.

 They argue that the Statistics Bill gives more powers to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) and by signing into law such a bill then the country is disqualifying any research information given by any other institutions and academic centres, a situation they said is not supposed to be found in a democratic country like Tanzania.

The country coordinator for the Human Rights Defenders Coalition (THRDS), Mr Onesmo Olengurumwa, told journalists yesterday that the new law calls for any data to be approved by NBS and that it has indicated a heavy punishment to media houses, NGOs and academic institutions to present their findings to NBS for verification.

“These Acts are very dangerous to development because there is no organ to judge truth in research conducted by private organizations and academic institutions, this will just be another loophole for the government to tight -lip them” he said.

He said in total the law has come to erase and discourage any research w work done by private and public institutions.

He called for a united rebuff of the law by all other human rights stakeholders saying the laws are grabbing people their constitutional rights.

On the cybercrime bill, Mr Olengurumwa said if signed into law many Tanzanians will fall victims of the punishments  accompanied by the law and that the hurry behind the passing of the laws is a sign that there is a hidden agenda”, he said.

“ For example the proposed law requires that service providers (Article 32) are liable to provide information on their clients upon demand let alone the unlimited powers provided to the police force (Article 31) to search users of online data in the absence of a court order (more like in the sense of an unlawful stop and search)”, he said.

On his part the director for Jamii Forums Mr Maxence Melo said by introducing such a laws the government has decided to forbid people from debating on issues that are of national interest.

“The law is there to monitor all social networks model of communications such facebook, Whatsapp and the like,” he said.