Judiciary to seek stakeholders’ views on anti-corruption court

FAUSTINE KAPAMA

THE Judiciary has decided to engage all legal stakeholders to provide their views on the best way under which the High Court’s Economic, Corruption and Organised Crime Division would operate, the Chief Justice, Mr Mohamed Chande Othman, has said.

Opening the Seventh Annual General Meeting of the Tanzania Institute of Arbitrators (TIA) in Dar es Salaam yesterday, Mr Othman disclosed that preparations for the establishment of the special division of the court were at an advanced stage.

“As you know, the National Assembly has already passed the bill establishing the special court dealing with economic crime and corruption cases in the country. Therefore, the president will anytime from now assent to the bill to become law,” he said.

On the part of the judiciary, the chief justice reported that they have already presented the first draft of the rules and regulations that would regulate the operation of the court to all legal stakeholders so that they can provide their opinions and views on the best way regarding the conduct of the proceedings before the court.

“I think after two weeks we’ll be in a better position to proceed with this matter. We want to see that the intention of establishing the court is achieved to the required standard. That is why we want all stakeholders to be involved,” he remarked.

Earlier, the Chairman of the Tanzania Institute of Arbitrators, Engineer Kesogukewele Msita, briefed the chief justice on the historical background of the institution and the way it was operating in the country.

He said that in 1995, he said, the National Construction Council (NCC) consulted the Attorney General’s Chambers and the Tanganyika Law Society regarding the establishment of a multi-sectoral and commercial arbitration institution.

Originally, NCC had been resolving construction– related disputes only. However, according to him, NCC saw the importance of spearheading the establishment of an institutional framework for resolving not only construction related disputes but also other types of commercial disputes.

Eng. Msita said, therefore, that on July 6, 1995, the NCC had organised a brainstorming meeting involving 20 invitees, which subsequently formed the steering committee, to develop a framework for the settlement of all types of commercial disputes.

The steering committee, he said, prepared a draft constitution, which was reviewed by the first General Meeting held on October 25, 1995, as the guiding framework of a new arbitration organisation. On July 15, 1997, the Tanzania Institute of Arbitrators was registered by the Registrar of Societies.

He told the head of the judiciary that two years later, on December 10, 1999, the Tanzania Institute of Arbitrators was formally launched by the then Chief Justice, Mr Francis Nyalali. Currently, the Institute has 168 members, comprising mainly lawyers, engineers, architects and quantity surveyors.

The main function of TIA is to promote and facilitate the expedient resolution of commercial disputes in Tanzania through arbitration and other alternative dispute resolution mechanisms.