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Thorough research needed on how to steer people away from superstition
2008-07-20 10:52:31
By Dr Simeon Mesaki
We have shown so far how the law on witchcraft has had to go through so many amendments since colonial rule.
The current legislation on witchcraft matters is the 2002 edition of the law which now reads ``Witchcraft Act`` instead of ``Ordinance``.
A modern dictionary differentiates the two as follows: i) an ordinance is: a decree, order, rule, regulation, law or edict. ii) An Act is: - a law, piece of legislation, statute, decree enactment, measure or bill.
The 2002 edition is the outcome of the revisions made by the Law Review Commission (LRC) referred to previously which worked on the report of the Nyalali Commission (NC) of 1992.
The Nyalali Commission
The NC whose recommendations also led to the liberalization of Tanzania politics in the early 1990s among other things delved into colonially inherited laws.
On witchcraft it observed how outdated it was and remained unchanged for so long. It concluded that the law was ``useless`` and expressed the need to repeal it.
For example it pointed out that the District Commissioner`s (DC`s) powers may be abused in arresting, detaining and deporting people, arguing that in most cases there would be no valid reasons, arguing that the powers given to the DCs were ``unnecessary and in fact gratuitous.``
To be sure apart from occurrences during colonial times I have not heard of the application of this section of the law on deportation of alleged witches in post-colonial Tanganyika.
The NC had dwelt on the Ordinance violated Article 17(1) of the Constitution of the country because it restricted freedom of movement of individuals, curtailed their freedom of residence.
On this point, the LRC was of the view that the complaints by the NC were answered by the following propositions:-
(i) There is enough protection for the suspected person; that it is almost impossible for the DC to misuse his/her powers.
(ii) If s/he did the enquiry as required, record would lead to the Regional Commissioner (RC) doing the needful.
(iii) At the end of the day the President would assist such affected person to be set free.
It argued that had the NC looked closely into the law, it would have come to the conclusion that there were enough safeguards to curtail misuse of power by the DC.
To be Continued next week
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