We’ve now allowed ordinary people to judge our courts’ performances’– CJ

 

SINCE time in history, courts have been judging people, but Tanzania is in the process of turning things around and ordinary citizens in the country will be able to evaluate the judicial pillar and offer their own judgment on its performance.

Chief Justice, Professor Ibrahim Hamis Juma said the ongoing reformation process in the judiciary pillar entails making sure that court users, in this case ordinary Tanzanians are given the opportunity to review and evaluate how the primary, regional and high courts deliver their respective services to ensure satisfaction.

“We are striving to make sure that our courts, magistrate and judges meet international standards of service provision, but this is not enough, we want to go beyond international standards and become an exemplary institution when it comes to providing justice to our people so that even other countries will come to Tanzania to learn how it is done,” said the Chief Justice.

Professor Hamis Juma was addressing some 220 Judges, Magistrates, Registrars and other court workers from all over the country during the ‘Judiciary of Tanzania Workshop on Judiciary Strengthening Project (JSP) Mid-term review taking place at the Arusha International Conference Center (AICC), where he stressed people-focused judicial services.

The Chief Justice also called for ‘easy to digest,’ language of the courts, pointing out that most of the proceedings, judgments and even legal statements are currently being published in English, while majority of Tanzanians are more conversant with Kiswahili. “That is why even ‘The Judiciary’ website is visited by few people, mostly judges, lawyers and magistrates who understand the English language as well as courts vocabularies; ordinary people will definitely steer clear of that,” he added.