EDITORIAL: Constitution should be respected by all
In recent times, the Tanzania Police Force has doubled its efforts towards curbing crime across the country. To do this, it spends, and rightly so, much of its time, energy, public funds, facilities/equipment and other resources.
It is an undeniable fact that both serious and petty crimes in the country have become more complex, this is by taking into consideration the transformation that the society is going through.
This may have been necessitated by the fact that the country is rife with unsolved crimes against life and property, resulting in deaths, maiming, and untold losses...
The crimes range from murders to violations of what are described as ‘online content regulations in this day and age of digitalisation.
Given the times, it is increasingly becoming common for such organisations as the Tanzania Communications Regulatory Authority (TRCA) to enlist the services of the Police Force in monitoring online content violations – in that regard arresting and detaining alleged violators of online content regulations.
For instance, in recent times, we have witnessed “owners of unregistered online publications, and those posting ‘unethical’ videos and photos on their social media accounts…” being arrested.
This follows the joint TCRA/Police crackdown started in the wake of the May 2018 ‘Electronic and Postal Communications (Online Content) Regulations’ made under the Electronic & Postal Communications Act, Chapter 306 of the Tanzania Laws as amended from time to time.
Among other things, the regulations require content “providers to ensure that (their) online content is safe, secure – and does not contravene the provisions of any written law…”
A trend that’s raising concerns
Chapter 20 of the Criminal Procedure Act provides for how a person can be arrested and the duration during which the suspect should be held in restraint.
The above piece of law, which is in line with the Constitution of the United Republic of Tanzania, states that a person may not be held for no more than 48 hours before being produced in court and formally charged.
But what is manifestly not fair is the growing trend whereby suspects are held for much longer than the time specified in the respective laws. The reason being fronted is that the police were still carrying out investigations. We think this matter needs serious revisiting.
For example, in the above mentioned crackdown, a number of persons have already been taken into custody.
It is high time, the police ceased and desisted from holding suspects in long detentions without first garnering sufficient evidence against them.
This is wrong as it violates human, natural and constitutional rights of the victims.
We trust that the police are seeking to enforce law and order and protect people’s lives and property as required by the law. However, this should be done within the laws of the land given the fact that a person is considered not guilty until he or she is proven otherwise in a court of law.
It is indeed past time that the government sternly addressed this before matters get out of hand.
