Dar es Salaam. Lawyers have continued to raise their voices on why the government should abolish the death penalty.
The call was made to compliment President John Magufuli’s stance that he will not execute death sentence during his tenure.
The statement was made on Monday at the State House during the swearing-in event of the Chief Justice, Prof Ibrahim Juma.
Dr Magufuli insisted that he was not ready to sign an execution warrant to offenders who have been sentenced to death, suggesting that the judiciary should not bother sending him proposals to approve the penalty.
“I’m always afraid of seeing people die, so I won’t approve death penalties during my tenure,” said President Magufuli.
Speaking to The Citizen, lawyers said the death penalty law should be amended before long and furthermore suggested for a countrywide debate on the matter.
A Dodoma based advocate, who is also a lecturer at the College of Business Education (CBE), Mr Adrian Ndunguru said it is high time the government considered amending the law.
He said, instead of keeping the convicts for a long time waiting for the execution of the sentence, the government should review the penalty to be in line with what international organisations on human rights advocate for.
“Staying in the prisons for a long time waiting for an unknown day of being executed is a bad thing. They are tortured psychologically, which is against human rights,” he said.
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