Dodoma – Stakeholders from Tanzania’s criminal-justice institutions have begun revising a proposed guide intended to monitor how those bodies carry out their responsibilities, placing performance indicators at the centre of a government effort to improve accountability and access to justice.
The meeting, held at Mtumba in Dodoma on September 15, examined the Draft Guide for Monitoring the Responsibilities of Criminal Justice Institutions.
According to the Ministry of Constitution and Legal Affairs, the exercise is designed to identify weaknesses in the draft and make it practical, measurable and capable of implementation.
Deputy Permanent Secretary Ambassador Baraka Luvanda said the proposed guide would rely on clearly defined key performance indicators, or KPIs.
“Understandable and measurable indicators will help strengthen accountability, which will ultimately improve the whole criminal-justice system and speed up access to justice for citizens,” he said, according to the ministry’s account.
The draft is presented as a tool for monitoring the duties of institutions involved in the criminal process, rather than as a new court, investigative body or disciplinary tribunal.
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Its stated objectives are to improve coordination, allow institutions to share experience and solve operational problems jointly, and reduce what Luvanda described as “a culture of institutions blaming one another.”
Jane Lyimo, the ministry’s Director of Constitution and Justice Monitoring, asked participants to contribute so that the final document would reflect operational realities and could be fully implemented.
The ministry’s statement about the meeting did not identify the participants, publish the draft, list the proposed indicators, set a completion deadline or state whether the guide will have legal force. The Chanzo also couldn’t find the draft on the ministry’s website or elsewhere.
Reforms
The exercise, however, follows the work of the Presidential Commission on Improving Criminal Justice Institutions, appointed by President Samia Suluhu Hassan in January 2023 and chaired by retired Chief Justice Mohamed Chande Othman.
The commission submitted more than 360 recommendations in July that year, after which the government converted it into an implementation committee and tasked it with helping prepare an implementation plan.
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That update cited the opening of 50 district offices for the National Prosecutions Service as an early implementation measure.
In May 2024, then-Constitution and Legal Affairs Minister Pindi Chana told leaders of criminal-justice institutions and officials from 11 ministries that an implementation strategy was nearing completion and instructed them to strengthen their monitoring-and-evaluation units.
The ministry said the strategy’s results would be assessed through monitoring reports capable of identifying achievements, weaknesses and corrective measures.
The September meeting places monitoring and evaluation at the centre of the next publicly reported reform step. The ministry’s press release of the Tuesday meeting does not say whether the draft guide forms part of the 2024 implementation strategy or is a separate administrative instrument.
The Judiciary has separately said it identified 18 areas from the commission’s report requiring action.
In 2023, then-Chief Justice Ibrahim Juma said courts should apply the existing provision requiring time spent on remand to be considered at sentencing and should make greater use of alternative sentences where the law permits.
The accountability question
The timing of a performance-monitoring instrument is significant because the 2023 commission’s work put attention on how arresting, investigative, prosecuting and adjudicating institutions exercise their powers.
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At its public presentation, the commission said regional and district commissioners must observe statutory limits on arrest powers, including that the relevant criminal offence be committed in their presence and that the arrest be followed by a written explanation to a magistrate.
The commission’s concern addressed a part of a broader rights and accountability record that contains both evidence of public confidence and evidence of reported misconduct.
The Legal and Human Rights Centre’s 2022 report, for instance, identified delays in investigations, lengthy pretrial detention, frequent adjournments, delayed disposal of cases and prison conditions as continuing criminal-justice concerns.
The organisation also noted calls for legal reforms and more immediate action to protect the rights of accused people.
Civil-society submissions to the Chande commission similarly proposed stronger oversight, improved access to information, more use of non-custodial penalties and human-rights training for justice officials.
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The September meeting has not yet indicated which rights-related benchmarks, if any, will appear in the guide. The final KPIs, any reporting arrangements and the handling of non-compliance will show whether the guide addresses those issues in detail.
The ministry has described the process as an attempt to make criminal-justice responsibilities more measurable and coordinated.
However, publication of the revised guide, its performance indicators and any reporting mechanism would clarify how the government intends to translate the 2023 commission’s recommendations into routine institutional practice.
