Tanzania: Poacher Loses Appeal As Court Upholds 20-Year Jail Sentence

By Faustine Kapama

THE High Court in Musoma District Registry has upheld a 20-year jail term imposed on Chacha Mnanga, alias Chacha, who was charged with and convicted of poaching along Mara River in the

Serengeti National Park within Serengeti District in Mara Region.

Judge Zephrine Galeba dismissed the appeal under which Chacha, the appellant, had lodged to challenge the findings of the trial at Serengeti District Court at Mugumu.

"The judgment of the District Court of Serengeti and the sentence imposed in an economic case No 120 of 2018 is hereby confirmed. This appeal is dismissed and the appellant has a right to further appeal against this judgment to the Court of Appeal," he declared.

During appeal hearing, the appellant had complained that he was not given an opportunity to call his independent witnesses to defend him and that the trial magistrate erred because the trial court tried the case without a certificate from the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP).

The appellant stated further that such a certificate would have vested the court with jurisdiction to try the economic case he was facing.

He had also complained, among other things, that he was convicted based on exhibits, the trophies referred to in the charge sheet, which were not physically tendered in court.

When determining the ground of appeal on independent witnesses, the court went through records and observed that on March 25, 2020 after the appellant was found with a case to answer, he was recorded to have indicated to call three other witnesses to defend him.

Judge Galeba was, however, quick to point out that the complaint presented by the appellant lacked substance because it was him who opted not to call witnesses of his choice.

On the question of the trial court lacking jurisdiction, the judge reviewed proceedings and found that a certificate to cloth jurisdiction with the district court to try the economic offence was filed in court on October 7, 2019 and the original document was also available on records.

Regarding the exhibits as complained by the appellant, the judge had this to say: "This ground is misconceived because the weapons which were the knife and the spear with which the appellant was arrested and subsequently charged with were duly tendered."

He said that as submitted by the prosecution, an inventory which in the case was tendered as one of the exhibits, stood in the place of the destroyed trophies because of the perishability of animal flesh.

According to him, this is lawful where the order to destroy the trophies is procured from a magistrate.

Before the District Court of Serengeti, the appellant was charged on three counts of unlawful entry into a national park and unlawful possession of one knife and one spear in the national park without any permission from the Director of Wildlife.