May, 2009

LEGAL SECTOR REFORM IN ZANZIBAR:

A CONCEPT NOTE

BACKGROUND
Zanzibar legal system has a very rich history which dates back
over a 150 years. When the Sultan of Oman adopted Zanzibar
as the centre of his empire in 1830’s he did not established any
formal legal system in Zanzibar. This situation prompted
foreign nations which had commercial or other sovereign
interest in Zanzibar to enter into treaties with the Sultan
which among other things granted those States
extraterritorial legal and judicial jurisdiction in Zanzibar.
These States included the United States (1833 Treaty), United
Kingdom (1839 Treaty), France (1844 Treaty) etc. Eventually
and owing to substantial sovereign interest, the United
Kingdom was the only nation which fully exercised the
extraterritorial jurisdiction. In 1861 they established a
Consular court which had power to handle all cases, civil and
criminal over all British subjects in the Sultan dominions of the
East Africa. Through the treaty, the British crown had power
to extend English laws to the British subjects. It was through
this window that the British crown extended to Zanzibar a
number of Indian laws, English laws, principles of common law
and equity to Zanzibar. On the other hand the Sultan had
powers to legislate for Sultan’s subjects. In 1897, formal
Sultan court system for his subjects was established. The
courts were essentially applying Islamic law which was
formally declared a fundamental law of Zanzibar. This system
was famously referred as the dual legal system.

When the Sultan legal system and the British legal system
were streamlined and assimilated in the 1920’s, a unique legal
system which was a blend of the British legal system and
Islamic legal system grew. The court system was well
developed and the legal profession in general had a number
of eminent practitioners in the region. After the 1964
revolution, the framework which developed for over a
hundred years was wholly dismantled and replaced by a new
system which was perceived as relevant for the time in order
to expedite social, economic and political reforms of the

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revolution era. The capacity of the legal system suffered
heavily in terms of infrastructure, operational capacity and
institutional capacity.

The revolutionary legal system was abolished in 1985 and the

existing system was established. However twenty years of
stagnation of the sector is still vivid today. The first initiative
to revive the system was made in 1994. The Bomani Task
Force under the FILMUP project covered Zanzibar as well. The
report identified a number of major weaknesses in the
Zanzibar legal sector and recommended substantial changes.
Among the recommendations of the report which were wholly
implemented was the establishment of the Office of the DPP in
Zanzibar.

Funding for the FILMUP Projects and Programs started in

1996. This was the year of donor stand off against the
Zanzibar Government following the first multiparty elections.
The opportunity to implement the legal sector reform in
Zanzibar simultaneously with the Mainland Tanzania was lost
owing to this unfortunate political circumstance. Ever since
there has been no coordinated efforts to revive the legal
sector in Zanzibar. The initiatives so far taken have been
sporadic and fragmented.

SITUATION ANALYSIS

Under the United Republic of Tanzania constitution,

administration of justice is not a union matter. As such,
Zanzibar maintains a separate legal sector regime which is
distinct from that of Mainland Tanzania though the two
jurisdictions share some legal sector institutions, laws and
even legal practice.
The legal sector in Zanzibar may be summarised as follows:

 Applicable Laws: The regime of Applicable Laws in

Zanzibar is comprised of the received laws; (Indian
legislation, English Statutes of general application,
principles of common law and equity). These laws
were extended to Zanzibar through successive Orders
in Council. Most of this part of the regime can hardly
be verified as the law revision and restatement of the
applicable received laws has not been done since

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 1958. Another component of the applicable laws is
the statutes passed by the Sultan countersigned by
the British Resident, Statutes passed by the legislative
council, Statutes passed by the Revolutionary Council
from 1964 to 1980 and Statutes passed the House of
Representatives from 1980 to date. Most of these
statutes are supplemented by bulky subsidiary
legislation.
 The Court System: The court system in Zanzibar is
comprised of three main components; the ordinary
courts which administer non-Islamic legal regime. This
part of the court system is comprised of the Primary
courts, District courts, Regional Magistrate Courts and
the High Court. These courts administer all civil and
criminal matters emanating from the applicable laws
of Zanzibar except those emanating from the Islamic
law. The second component is the Kadhis’ courts.
These are the courts which administer elements of
Islamic personal law which is applicable as between
Muslims in Zanzibar. There are District Kadhis’ Courts
and an appellate Chief Kadhi’s Court. The supreme
appellate court for matters arising from the Kadhis’
courts is the High Court of Zanzibar which is
constituted by a judge who sits with four Islamic
scholars. The third component is the judicial tribunals.
There are a number of judicial tribunals such as Rent
Restriction Board, Land Tribunal, Industrial court,
Liquor Licensing Board and Tax Appeals Board.
 The Legal Sector Institutions: There are a number of
legal sector institutions in both public and private
sector. Key among them are as follows:
o The Judiciary: The judiciary in Zanzibar is the
largest legal sector institution. It is headed by
the Chief Justice assisted by the Registrar of the
High Court as the Executive Officer. The service
of the judicial staff is supervised by the Judicial
Service Commission. For non-judicial staff the
service is supervised by the Central
Establishment.
o Attorney General’s Office: The main function of
the Office is to serve as chief legal adviser to the
Government. It is also responsible for legislative
drafting and training through internship of the

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 new law graduates. The Office is headed by the
Attorney General who is also an ex officio
member of the House of Representatives and of
the Zanzibar cabinet of Ministers.
o Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions: The
Office is fairly new having been established
under the Zanzibar Constitution in 2002 and
started its operations in 2003. It has exclusive
mandate to prosecute all criminal cases for
offences committed in Zanzibar. The Office
therefore conducts prosecution work in the High
Court, Regional Magistrate Courts and District
courts. The Office is so far the largest in terms of
the number of qualified lawyers, having 27
lawyers.
o The Law Review Commission: The Commission
though independent is part of the Attorney
General’s Office. Its main function is revision of
the laws of Zanzibar either at the request of the
Attorney General or on its own motion. The
Commission is headed by a full time Chairman
and Secretary to the Commission. There are also
full time legal researchers. Part time
Commissioners are appointed as part of the
structure of the Commission.
o Ministry of Constitutional Affairs and Good
Governance: The Ministry which was
established in November, 2000 is responsible for
coordination and policy direction of the legal
sector. It represents all the key legal sector
institutions in the House of Representatives and
is responsible for legal sector policy advice to the
government. Though the Ministry has no
distinct legal sector policy unit, it has been
coordinating policy matters through Department
of Policy and Planning.
o Registrar General’s Office: The Office was part of
the Attorney General’s Office until when it was
made separate office in 1998. Its main function
is civil and business registration; that is
registration of birth and death, registration of
titles, registration of business names, companies,

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 patents, trademarks, NGOs and administration of
estates of non-Muslim.
o Police: Tanzania Police is a Union institution.
However it operates in Zanzibar as a special
Police zone. It enforces the laws of Zanzibar and
the Union laws applicable to Zanzibar. The
Police in Zanzibar is headed by the
Commissioner of Police Zanzibar assisted by 5
Regional Police Commanders and 10 Officer in
charge of Districts (OCDs). On the criminal
investigation, the Deputy Director of Criminal
Investigation is the head assisted by Regional
Crime Officers. There is also Zanzibar Police
College which is used to train Police from
throughout Tanzania. The main function of the
Police is crime prevention, criminal investigation,
protection of public safety and road traffic
management.
o Zanzibar Food and Drugs Board: The Board is a
key law enforcement institution in the area of
public safety and consumer protection. It is
responsible for supervision of safety and
standards of pharmaceuticals, food and
cosmetics. It is also responsible for orderly
management of the services rendered in the
area. The Board was established in 2006 and
has so far made a great impact in terms of
seizure and condemnation of drugs and food
stuff unfit for public use or consumption.
o Offenders Education Institutions (Prisons):
Zanzibar maintains a separate system for
treatment of offenders. The Prisons; in the
foregoing name is headed by the Commissioner.
It is part of discipline forces (Special Department)
maintained by the Zanzibar Government. It is
responsible for treatment of all offenders
including juvenile offenders. They are also
responsible for custody of remand prisoners
awaiting trials or execution of sentences.
o Legal Training Institutions: Zanzibar University
is the only university in Zanzibar with a law
faculty. The first batch law graduates came out
in 2003. Ever since the University has been

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 producing quite a good number of law
graduates. The University of Dar es salaam
maintains a training centre for teaching
certificate in law program which has been very
useful in producing law clerical staff and
paralegals. Apart from the two training
institutions, Zanzibar has also been relying
heavily on Mzumbe University and Lushoto
Institute of Judicial Administration for training of
legal sector staff. There is no institution within
Zanzibar or Mainland Tanzania which deals with
legal sector or criminal justice policy research
and development, specialised training need for
public sector legal institutions. This vacuum has
led
o Private Legal Practice and the Role of NGOs:
Private legal practice is coordinated by the
Zanzibar Law Society. Private practice was
abolished in Zanzibar following the introduction
of post-revolution legal system. It was seriously
revived in the late 1990’s and has been picking
up very slowly. Private practice is characterised
by shortage of lawyers, lack of capacity and
specialization and non existence of legal aid
system which has subsequently lead to limited
access to justice. Few NGOs operate in this
sector. Few notable ones are the Zanzibar Legal
Service Centre and Zanzibar Female Lawyers
Association. They provide limited legal aid,
public awareness programs and advice to public
authorities on various aspects of the legal sector.

 Legal Sector Policy Framework: The legal sector policy

framework is virtually non-existent. At national level
there are mere broad policy statements in the
Zanzibar Vision 2020 and also under the Zanzibar
Strategy for Growth and Poverty Reduction (MKUZA)
where broad policy statements are under Cluster III.
There are few institutional and individual components
strategic plans. As such legal sector policy framework
is characterised by lack of clear policy directive and
fragmented reform or improvement strategies.

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  Operational Framework: The legal sector operational
framework is characterised by the following:
o Severe lack of institutional and operational
capacity
o Severe poor infrastructure
o Shortage of technical and financial resources
o Inordinate delay in delivery of justice
o Outdated or absence of clear policy directives
o Outdated laws, legal practice and procedures
o Lack of responsiveness to new social, economic
and technological realities
o Poorly motivated personnel
o Low competence and efficiency
o High perception of well ingrained corruption
o Lack of public awareness on basic justice process

 Sector wide coordination: Though the sector

institutions need to work closely together in a chain
link fashion, the situation on the ground is far from
such approach. Apart from few ad hoc meetings and
forums the sector is not coherently working together.
 Areas supported under various programs: Various
initiatives have been undertaken to improve a number
of areas of criminal justice sector. The initiative
include support to the establishment of the DPP
Office, improvement of judiciary and the improvement
of good governance in general. The initiatives have
provided some results though not significant. The
main weakness of the support initiatives have been an
uncoordinated and fragmented nature of the
initiatives. Consequently, the results, except for few
cases, have not been of conspicuous impact to the
sector development in general.

CHALLENGES AND AREAS OF STRATEGIC INTERVENTIONS

The current status of the legal sector in Zanzibar entails a

number of challenges that need to be addressed. Further,
owing to such extreme challenges, strategic intervention is
needed in a number of areas. Among the notable challenges
and identifiable areas of strategic interventions are as follows:

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 Key Challenges: The Legal Sector in Zanzibar is facing
key challenges to achieve the following:
o Speedy dispensation of justice at affordable cost
o Integrity of the legal sector institutions, legal
process and the legal sector personnel
o Independence and public confidence to legal
sector institutions and process
o Institutional and operational capacity
o Adoption and adaptation to technological
development
o Sustainable adaptation to ever evolving
economic, social and political changes
o Effective and efficient service delivery
o Adequate infrastructure and technical resources
o Sufficient human resource capacity

 Areas for Strategic Interventions: The legal sector is

broad and almost the whole sector has suffered
inordinately long period of stagnation and lack of
reforms. It follows therefore, owing to strong linkage
between different areas of the sector, all the areas are
a priority. However reforms interventions need to be
clustered in five key areas of interventions for the
purpose of obtaining measurable and conspicuous
output within a short period:

o CRIMINAL JUSTICE: Be a sector wide initiative

which will cover all aspects of criminal justice
including institutional and operational capacity
building in specific areas relating to criminal
justice. Specific areas covered under this cluster
include crime reporting, criminal investigation,
forensic and expert service, prosecution, criminal
litigation, protection and treatment of victims
and witness, treatment of offenders and cross
cutting issues such as application of modern
technology and integrity of the criminal justice
institutions. This aspect will also cover law and
policy review in matters specifically relevant to
criminal justice.

o JUDICIARY AND ACCESS TO JUSTICE: The

judiciary being at the centre of the legal sector

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 needs special attention. Interventions in this
area will cover institutional capacity of the
judiciary; from physical to technical
infrastructure, management of the judiciary,
institutional reforms, human resource capacity
and operational culture and practice including
case management. This intervention aspect will
also cover matters relating private practice, legal
aid and affordable access to justice.

o CIVIL JUSTICE REFORM: Civil justice is not only a

matter of civil cases. This aspect will cover broad
range of issues relating to both judicial and non
judicial administration of public affairs
(administrative justice and human rights)
personal, private, civic, commercial, admiralty,
social, family and juvenile justice..

o SUSTAINABLE CAPACITY BUILDING: Capacity

building will cover short, long term and tailor
designed trainings. It will also cover capacity
building to existing legal training institutions
and the establishment of legal resource centres
for specialised aspects of the legal sector.
Introduction of sustainable Continued Legal
Education system as part of legal profession
career advancement and improvement of law
libraries.

o POLICY AND LAW REVIEW: Will cover all

aspects of legal sector policy development, policy
review and matters relating to the development
of new legal phenomenon and review of the
existing legal regimes. Areas to be covered
include the capacity of the institutions
responsible for policy development; such as the
Ministry, Attorney General’s Office, Law Review
Commission, the House of Representatives, Local
government and other MDAs. The capacity of
legislative drafting, research and the whole
legislative process.

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KEY REFORM OBJECTIVES AND OUTPUT

The reform initiatives should target the following key

objectives and output:

 Objective I: Effective and efficient national legal

framework. Strategic output of the objective:
o Legal system which is responsive to the economic,
social and global evolving realities;
o Ascertainable legal regime;
o Clear national and sectoral policies on each aspect
of the legal sector;
o Sound institutional and operational capacity of the
legal sector
 Objective II: Public safety, national peace, stability
and economic prosperity of individuals through credible
means: Strategic output:
o Protection of public safety through effective and
efficient preventive law enforcement;
o Effective crime prevention
o Effective prosecution of crimes with measurable
impact against proceeds and benefit of crimes to
offenders;
o Humane and effective treatment of offenders at
minimum cost to prevent repetitiveness
 Objective III: Credible, effective and affordable system
of dispensation of justice: Strategic output:
o Public trust and confidence to the judiciary;
o Effective, credible and speedy trials;
o Affordable access to justice
 Objective IV: Skills and Knowledge of the Legal Sector
Personnel meet the demand of sector service delivery:
Strategic output:
o Highly skilled professionals in the legal sector;
o Increased specialisation;
o Measurable career and skill advancement;
o High research capability;
o Enhanced ability to dissemination and sharing of
knowledge and information.
 Objective V: Highest Standard of Service delivery and
Management of the Legal Sector Institutions: Strategic
output:

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 o High integrity of institutions and individual
personnel of the legal sector;
o Measurable standard of service delivery;
o Sound management of the institutions with clear
vision and defined targets;
o Effective coordination and sector wide approach to
management of the legal sector.

IMPLEMENTATION FRAMEWORK

Though many studies have been conducted on the legal

sector, the result and recommendations are scattered. The five
cluster areas of reforms are broad by themselves and are
designed the mainstreamed aspects of each cluster and
marginal but yet important aspects of each cluster. Further
each cluster might involve stakeholders which are not
necessarily key players in the cluster yet an indispensable one.
In order to meet this implementation challenge and for the
purpose of precise identification of challenges and objectives
the implementation framework is proposed as follows:

 Formulation of Zanzibar Legal Sector Reform Steering

Committee (SC): A high level steering committee needs
to be formulated at the earliest under the Ministry of
Good Governance or as an extra-ministerial set up. The
main function of the SC will be to provide strategic
direction to the reform process and to coordinate the
implementation process. The SC need to be supported
by an able multi-institution Secretariat to be identified
by the Ministry of Good Governance.
 Develop Reform Framework (RF) for Clusters: Each
cluster should develop a Reform Framework Paper to
identify the current status of the cluster, challenges,
reform objectives, areas of strategic intervention and
work plan and costing. A good example in this respect
is the Criminal Justice Reform Framework, which though
does not contain the costing is comprehensive enough
to start rolling the initial reform interventions.
 Adoption of the RF: Each RF need to be scrutinized by
the SC and adopted by the government before it is
admitted as a legal sector reform area.
 Comprehensive Legal Sector Reform Framework: A
collection of clusters RF will form a single Zanzibar Legal

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 Sector Reform Framework. The final document will also
contain aspects of Monitoring and Evaluation of the
reform program. Because time is of essence, formulation
of the RF papers should start as immediate as possible
under special funding arrangement.

CONCLUSION
The background, history and the status quo of the legal sector
in Zanzibar demands a precise, pragmatic and well customised
reform strategy. The cluster approach offers a great benefit. It
is capable of targeting specific areas and produce measurable
and conspicuous changes within a short period. It also
excludes unnecessary crowding of stakeholders by excluding
marginal stakeholders in areas they are not active and leave
them to participate in their relevant areas only. The concept
note is a mere outline and not a replacement to
comprehensive study and need assessment of the legal sector.

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