A Compulsory Research Report Submitted to Mzumbe University – Mbeya Campus College in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for an Award of the Degree of Bachelor of Laws (LL.B) of Mzumbe University.
The research based on “Admissibility of Electronic Evidence in Tanzania”. The case study of Dar es Salaam Region. The research complies of four chapters. Under this study the researcher aimed at finding the issue pertaining the admissibility of electronic evidence and its effectiveness. Also researcher aimed at examining the challenges facing admissibility of electronic evidence and its possible solutions. In this research data was obtained through primary and secondary method of data collection; primary data was obtained through interview and questionnaires, while the secondary data was obtained by passing through various documentary reviews. The finding from the study indicates that, Tanzania enacted Electronic Transaction Act, No. 13 of 215 to recognize the admissibility of electronic evidence in civil proceedings at large due to the fact that the amendment in the Evidence Act put more emphasis on electronic evidence in criminal cases. Also Tanzania cannot escape from wind of electronic communication whereby most transactions are likely to take place therein. Being the case there is a great need of improving the framework so that we can be able to be in safe position as due to the fact that Tanzania does not have a strong legislation to control admissibility of electronic evidence and tendering them in court of law is still a problem this is due to the fact that there are different challenges facing the admissibility of electronic evidence in Tanzania as First; hardcopy and soft copy versions of a document may not be identical, for example, some hidden information may only be visibly seen during the examination of the electronic version, while missing in the hard form of the version. Second; hard copy documents need only be viewed and read by the naked eyes to be comprehended, whereas soft copy documents inevitably need hardware and software and expertise, to be accessed and translated into a comprehensible form. Third; softcopy document are so fragile and susceptible to tampering and forgery as opposed to hard copy documents. Fourth; softcopy documents are both easier to copy and disseminate and more difficult to destroy. As from the findings the researcher provides recommendations to the validity of electronic evidence that it should go hand in hand with providing for specific procedures and conditions for admissibility of electronic evidence in civil and criminal cases. Also, the legislature should incorporate with statutory provision in order to provide effective legal framework of admissibility of electronic evidence. Otherwise the legal validity will fail to achieve the intended purpose of admissibility of electronic evidence. Therefore, the amendment should include provision providing specific procedure and additional conditions like requirement of storage for admissibility of electronic evidence in proceedings.