Fatma Karume new TLS president

Dar es Salaam. Fatma Karume, daughter of former Zanzibar President Amani Abeid Karume, has emerged victorious in the Tanganyika Law Society (TLS) presidential election held in Arusha yesterday.

She defeated three other contestants--Mr Godwin Ngwilimi (363 votes), Mr Godwin Mwaipongo (12 votes), and Mr Godfrey Wasonga (6).

She succeeds Mr Tundu Lissu, who is recovering from gunshot wounds in Belgium. Both Ms Karume and Mr Ngwilimi, who retains his position as TLS vice, are among the partners of Immma Advocates.

TLS started their two-day meeting, which was opened by the Principal Judge, Dr Ferdinand Wambali, on Friday, who in his brief remarks stressed that “there is no turning back in the war against corruption!”

Outgoing TLS president Lissu sent a strong farewell message to members of the Society.

In his 10-page statement from his Belgian hospital bed where he is receiving treatment following the September 7 attack – while attending a Parliamentary session in Dodoma – Mr Lissu thanked the TLS members for their support from ‘Day One’ when he was elected TLS president on March 18 last year.

He said that he strongly wished to see the harmonious relationships between the government and the Bar continue. But the relationships must be based on “sound principles of respect for legality, human rights and multiparty democratic values.

On Friday, TLS once again reiterated its concerns over the increasingly worrying assaults against its members and other human rights activists.

In that regard, the Society cited as a living example the near-fatal shooting of its out-going president Tundu Lissu, who was shot by hitherto unknown assailants in Dodoma – and also the vandalism of offices of private advocates.

This latter includes the offices of the Immma Advocates in Dar es Salaam, which were apparently petrol-bombed, with some of their documents and other records carted away – also by ‘persons unknown’.