Tundu Lissu: Act on judges` report or…

Official Opposition chief whip, who is also Singida East legislator (Chadema), Tundu Lissu, briefs the press about his intention to move a motion in the National Assembly to impeach the President if he does not remove judges who were allegedly appointed unconstitutionally. (Photo: Tryphone Mweji)

Singida East lawmaker Tundu Lissu yesterday threatened to move a motion to impeach the President if judges claimed to have been appointed contrary to the country’s constitution are not removed.

Lissu was briefing journalists in Dodoma yesterday about his planned move following reports that Speaker of the National Assembly Anne Makinda will not table in the House a report compiled by the Parliamentary Privileges, Ethics and Powers Committee after probing the MP’s claims made on July 13, this year.

However Clerk of the National Assembly, Dr Thomas Kashillilah has been reported saying that the report could be tabled before the current session ends. Lissu who is the opposition chief whip, said since he had evidence to support his claims he would move a private motion in the august House in its February session seeking to impeach the President.

The Union president is the appointing authority of the judges both in High Court and Court of Appeal. During the 2012/2013 Constitution and Legal Affairs ministry budget estimates debate in July this year the outspoken legislator told the House that the appointment of some High Court and Court of Appeal judges did not follow proper procedures, thus creating loopholes for having incompetent judges in the judiciary. The claims prompted Attorney General Justice Frederick Werema and Constitutional and Legal Affairs minister Mathias Chikawe to order Lissu to retract his claims or face disciplinary action under Parliamentary rules.

Lissu, however refused to retract his claims, a move that forced Speaker Anne Makinda to order him to appear before the Parliamentary Privileges, Ethics and Powers Committee for questioning to substantiate his claims. Gosbert Blandes (Karagwe, CCM), Job Ndugai (Kongwa, CCM), Assumpter Mshama (Nkenge, CCM) and Murtaza Mangungu (Kilwa North, CCM) accused Lissu of making blasphemous polemics against the learned brothers.

The committee, led by Mlalo Constituency MP retired Brig Gen Hassan Ngwilizi was also charged with the responsibility of investigating the claims and to come up with a report for the Speaker.

Lissu yesterday said that it has come to his attention that a prominent judge in the country (name withheld) has allegedly forged documents detailing his profile by changing his date of birth so that he could retire in 2017 instead of 2014.

He claimed that the judge forged the documents to show that he was born on September 4, 1952 instead of September 4, 1949. The justice allegedly managed to reach the files of students who did law studies at the University of Dar es Salaam in 1974, to remove documents that purported to show his true date of birth, the MP claimed.

Lissu threatened to name the judge if he does not hand back the documents he tore from the file before the next Parliamentary session.

The legislator alleged that during his encounter with Ngwilizi’s committee he had facts to support his claims, including citing the report of the presidential task force submitted to the government in March 2008 in which, among other things, it admitted that some judges were wrongly serving in the judiciary.

All High court judges were supposed to be properly vetted by the Judicial Services Commission before they are recommended for appointment by the President, he said. For an individual to be appointed a High Court judge he should have worked in the relevant field as a magistrate or advocate for not less than ten years after being conferred a bachelor’s degree in law, he said.

Similarly an individual with the qualifications to be registered as an advocate and one who has worked in the legal profession for not less than ten years can be appointed by the President to the post of a High Court judge, he added.

However, the above qualifications are not the sole criteria, Lissu said, as the Judicial Service Commission that is chaired by the Chief Justice has to give recommendations to the President prior to appointment as a High Court judge.

According to Lissu, failure to follow the laid down procedures in appointing judges has brought about failure by some appointees to properly record the course of cases at the courts