In 2012, Rose Malle, an 18-year-old woman from Moshi, Kilimanjaro, found herself in prison, facing the possibility of a death sentence. She had been accused of killing a bodaboda driver, and in December 2015, a court sentenced her to death for the driver’s murder.
But the police had arrested the wrong person—Rose bore no responsibility for the man’s death. Nevertheless, she spent years in prison—two of them on death row—in horrendous and overcrowded conditions, lacking access to medical care and enduring immense stigma from other prisoners and guards because of her death sentence.
In 2017, Rose was finally acquitted and released after spending five years in prison for a crime she had nothing to do with. But there are many other women serving death sentences in Tanzania today who haven’t been as lucky.
Ghati Mwita, a 66-year-old survivor of gender-based violence, has spent the last 15 years in prison, convicted of murder for the accidental death of a fisherman. Even though witnesses gave inconsistent and contradictory accounts of what happened, and a jury initially returned a not guilty verdict, a judge overrode their recommendation and sentenced Ghati to death.
Ghati, who is elderly and suffers from significant health problems, is at risk of dying in prison because the legal system has continually failed her.
READ MORE: A Sad Story of Ghati Mwita, An Elderly Woman Who Has Spent 15 Years in Prison Without Evidence
Today, 10 October, is World Day Against the Death Penalty. The stories of both Rose and Ghati help to illustrate the grave injustices faced by many women and other vulnerable people who have been sentenced to death in Tanzania. They reaffirm the fact that the death penalty is an inherent violation of the right to life.
Moreover, they also demonstrate the discriminatory nature of the death penalty, which disproportionately affects the most vulnerable members of our society, including women, people with mental illnesses, and people living in poverty.
Because the death penalty is a mandatory sentence in Tanzania, courts cannot consider mitigating factors in individual cases. They cannot, for example, take into account histories of abuse or gender-based violence, nor can they consider a person’s mental or intellectual disabilities when determining an appropriate sentence.
Other countries in the region have recognised these problems, which are inherent in the continued use of the mandatory death penalty. Neighbours, including Burundi, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Rwanda, Uganda, and Zambia, have abolished the mandatory death penalty. Most of these countries have also taken the further step of abolishing the death penalty entirely, recognising it as a fundamental violation of the right to life.
Last year, President Samia Suluhu Hassan seemed to be moving in the right direction when she established a Criminal Justice Commission to review various aspects of Tanzania’s justice system. The Commission called for the abolition of the mandatory death penalty and whole life sentences. However, the government has not implemented any of these recommendations to date.
READ MORE: Here’s Why LHRC Wants Death Penalty Abolished in Tanzania
Further, the African Court on Human and People’s Rights has called on Tanzania to abolish the mandatory death penalty in at least nine cases over the past three years. One of those cases was Ghati’s, in which the Court ruled that her mandatory death sentence was in violation of the African Charter and ordered a resentencing hearing in which she would not be resentenced to death.
But the government has continuously ignored the Court’s judgments, refusing to conduct any resentencing hearings or to remove the mandatory death penalty from our laws.
The longer our country maintains this appalling status quo, the more vulnerable people like Rose and Ghati and their families will suffer. It is high time for Tanzania to comply with the African Court’s rulings, accept the recommendations of the Commission, and demonstrate a true commitment to human rights by abolishing the mandatory death penalty.
Anna Henga is the Executive Director of the Legal and Human Rights Centre (LHRC). She can be reached at ahenga@humanrights.or.tz or on X as @HengaAnna. The opinions expressed here are the writer’s own and do not necessarily reflect those of The Chanzo. If you are interested in publishing in this space, please contact our editors at editor@thechanzo.com.
