Justice Edward Rutakangwa, Representative of the Chief Justice of Tanzania;

Hon. Bart Kalunebe, Chief Justices of Uganda;

Hon. Justice Omar Makungu, Chief Justice of Zanzibar;

Hon. Nkwirunziza, Vice President of East Africa Court of Justice;

Hon. Ignus Kitusi, President of the Judges and Magistrate Association of Tanzania (JMAT);

Hon. Judges and Magistrates from our Jurisdictions;

Hon. President of the East Africa Magistrates and Judges Association;

Distinguished representative of the Common Wealth Magistrates and Judges Association and other Professional Associations;

Hon. Regional Commissioner for Mwanza Region;

Distinguished delegates;

Invited guests;

Ladies and gentlemen;

 

It is a pleasure and an honour for me  to join you and officiate the opening ceremony of the 2015 Annual Conference and General Meeting of the East Africa Magistrates and Judges Association (EAMJA). I feel privileged to have had the opportunity to do this twice in 5 years. As you may recall the last time was at the 8^th Annual Conference on 19^th May, 2010 in Arusha.

Tribute to EAMJA

Ladies and Gentlemen;

I Commend the EAMJA for the outstanding achievements recorded in the past 15 years of its existence.  You have all along remained consistent and persistent to your vision and mission. The fact you have been able to meet regularly in the past 15 years, is in itself, a testimony of the strength and vibrancy of your association. It is not surprising therefore that you have increased your membership from 3 to 4 countries.

This Association is playing an important role in advancing the East African Community’s integration agenda. Despite your observer status in the East Africa Community, the impact of your work is beyond observing.  You have gone a step further to integrate judges and magistrate in the region over and beyond the inter-governmental structures within the Community.  I commend you for always being ahead of the political leadership.   I see in the work of this Association an important building block being erected which will make it easier for EAC member states to integrate their legal systems at a later stage of integration. Indeed, the dream reflected in the theme of your first conference in 2001 titled “Towards Harmonization of the Administration of Justice in East Africa” looks possible.

Theme of the Conference

Ladies and Gentlemen;

This year’s theme “Enhancing Public Trust and Confidence in the Judiciary:  Judicial Accountability, Court Performance and Management Systems” resonates well with the realities of the day.  You will agree with me that the demand for better governance is on the rise. There is   mounting public pressure on accountability and transparency in public service. The Judiciary has not been spared. People’s expectations on the judiciary are equally on the rise, and at times too overwhelming or overbearing given the capability challenges facing our Courts.

I sincerely commend you for choosing such a pertinent theme. It addresses the perennial complaints of our people which threaten loss of trust and confidence in our Judiciaries. One other important thing the East Africa region needs besides economic cooperation and integration are judiciaries that observe somewhat similar standards with regards to lifespan of cases, commercial case rules of practice and procedures, punishment of offenders and compensation to victims of crime etc.

Much as I understand that it may take us sometime more before we achieve harmonized laws or a common appellate court, I believe there are things which always form a common denominator that when put in place or done the feeling of relief will be felt across the region.  For instance,   it is good for an East African to be able to predict the duration of litigation in our Courts, the level of ethics and competence of Judicial and non-Judicial officers.

When I looked at the program of this Conference, it gave me a course of satisfaction.  I am informed, that there will be discussion on Measuring Court Performance and Case Management System, Women’s Right to inheritance and strategies of addressing case delays.  I have been made to understand that blue prints for measuring court performance are hard to come by but the fact that you have included such a topic in your program reassures some of us that Judges and Magistrates have now taken upon themselves the leading role to measure their performance.

I think I can speak with confidence that no Chief Justice wants to head a Judiciary whose judges and magistrates can choose to work or not to. We may go on to ask, is it not good for the people of East Africa to have courts that have performance standards? Is it not better for our people if these standards were Regional but at the same time benchmarking on international standards?

Our judiciaries have no choice if they are to remain relevant and enjoy public trust.  What is the use of a judiciary or a court-of law if the people who are the primary clients do not rely on it in pursuit of justice? It is not uncommon in our countries, to see people resort to mob justice and other barbaric ways to settle disputes. Indeed, such acts impact negatively in our quest to promote judiciary, peace and security but what do we make of it? It is heartwarming indeed, to note that the judiciary in Tanzania has responded in a fashionable manner by introducing benchmarks and targets to ensure timely and quality delivery of justice.

Efforts of Enhancing Public Confidence and Trust in Tanzania

Ladies and Gentlemen;

It is true that the judiciary has the primary responsibility to respond to public demands for accountability and trust.  However, Judiciary cannot achieve it alone, since the question of justice and access to justice involves equally the Executive and the Parliament.  As we know, the Judiciary is only to interprets laws encted by Parliament. It is Parliament which makes laws that promotes access to justice. Therefore, for the Judiciary to be seen to deliver justice, it must first and foremost use laws which in themselves are seen and perceived to be just.

The share of the Executive in supporting the Judiciary to win public trust and confidence is equally unequivocal.  It is the Executive that has a role to ensure  the Judiciary get the requisitive finances, manpower and infrastructure to be able to meet public demands for timely and quality justice.  I say so having in mind that at times, the delays of cases may be a function of limited capacity than indifference and incompetence of the Judges and magistrates.

The Role of the Executive

Ladies and Gentlemen;

My administration has taken a number of measures in the past 10 years to enhance the Court’s ability to respond to the challenges of maintaining public trust and confidence through increased accountability, improved performance and management systems.  I understand that this August Assembly will receive country presentations.  Therefore, you will be presented with our Tanzania’s experience.  It suffices therefore, to mention that my government made the following interventions.

i.                  To put in a place the Judiciary Fund in year 2011 with the idea of giving the judiciary increased ability to plan and execute its program.  We are yet to perfect the new systems of financing the judiciary, but there has been a significant increase in budgetary allocations. For example the judiciary budget has increased from 36.6 billion Tanzania Shillings in 2005 to 88.9 billion Shillings in 2015. But we need to do more.

ii.                  To address the issue of manpower by increasing number of Judges, Magistrates and staff of the court.  The number of the Judges for the Referral Court has increased from 9 in 2005 to 16 in 2015, High court Judges from 35 in 2005 to 94 in 2015 and Resident Magistrates from 151 in 2005 to 677 in 2015.

iii.                  The other significant thing has been the sharp increases in the number of women Judges and Magistrates. There are now 41 women judges in both Referral Court and High Court, compared to 8 in 2005. Such affirmative action has had some significant impact on winning public confidence and trust, and increasing sensitivity to women’s rights on issues such as land and inheritance.

iv.                  Improve the remuneration packages for the Judges and Magistrates by enacting the Judges Remuneration Act No. 4 of 2007 to provide incentive for Judges and Magistrates to perform their noble duties judiciously.

    v.                  Development of the court infrastructure by embarking on a comprehensive program to build more Primary Courts, Resident Magistrates Courts and High Courts. According to this program we build High Courts in every region for the same purpose to enable people to have access to court close to where they live.

Ladies and Gentlemen;

          As a result of collaborative efforts, the Judiciary has been able to register remarkable improvements in its performance of our Judiciary.  The Chief Justice Othman Chande and his team came with the plan reminiscence of the governments “Big Result Now” (BRN), a mechanism adopted by the government to ensure effective government delivery. In Judiciary’s BRN, they have set a benchmark for every Judge to handle at least 220 cases per year and Resident Magistrates 250 cases per year and 260 cases for primary court magistrates. They have also set a target of a period of 2 years for a case to stay at the Court.  They also undertook to deal with the huge backlog of cases with remarkable success. So far 50 percent of such cases have been cleared in the past two years.  Likewise, I am told they have rolled out new Management Information System (MIS) which enable the Chief Justice to track and know how many cases have been registered, how many files closed and how many files each Judge has from his desk.

I am amply encouraged by the progress made and being made. I look to the future of our judiciary with a great sense of optionism. The future is very promising indeed.

Conclusion

Ladies and Gentlemen;

This Assembly offers a unique opportunity to learn from each other’s experience and best practices. I find it important that you find ways and means of forging closer for collaboration. Such collaboration will go a long way towards bringing closer our judicial systems as we walk towards deeper East Africa integration and hopefully the   Federation. I dream to see your Association rise to the occasion and take our Community to greater heights. I encourage you to keep up the good work.

As earlier said, this will be my second EAMJA Assembly to officiate.  This is also the last to officiate as the President of the United Republic of Tanzania.  I will leave office after the elections in October 2015. This is therefore, an opportunity for me to bid you farewell. I will go to my retirement happily that I played my part in promoting access promoting East African integration and increased the quality of Justice for Tanzanians.

With these many words, I declare this Assembly and conference officially opened.

 

I thank you for your kind attention