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The ward tribunal has been a blessing in the history of land courts in Tanzania by settling disputes amicably amongst the parties in wards.
In 1985, Ward Tribunals were established by the Ward Tribunal Act, cap 206 of 1985, as
administrative bodies under the Executive arm of the government to secure
peace and harmony in the area for which it is established by mediating to obtain just and amicable settlement of disputes. The rationale behind is not too far to trace; its aim
was to reduce bulk load of cases, to attain dispute decisions at a great speed and at low cost. However, as the time went on, the functions of Ward Tribunals have expanded, from being the mediatory bodies to an institution giving a binding decision upon the parties as provided by the Courts Land Dispute Settlement Act; cap 216 R.E 2002.
It is an outcry that, since the ward tribunals had started performing an adjudicatory role, access to legal services became problematic. This was due to professional inadequacies that emanated from the assumption that high qualification to members of ward tribunals is not necessary. This lead to low provision of justice and it diminished the public confidence.
The study involved a documentary reviews and field research by extracting relevant information from various sources like ward tribunals, legal practitioners and ordinary citizens. Data were collected through oral interviews, questionnaire and focus group discussions. The study used a sample of 25 respondents and random sampling procedure was used to get a sample.
It was found out that professional inadequacies of ward tribunal members had a serious effect as it has denied good provision of legal services.
This study recommends that for the sake of attaining justice, the law should be amended to enable ward tribunal members to get the required qualifications to be able to dispense good justice to all citizens. |
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