Admissibility of Electronic Evidence in Tanzania: Law and Practice

Mkandya, Bernadetha Hassan (2011) Admissibility of Electronic Evidence in Tanzania: Law and Practice. Masters thesis, The Open University of Tanzania.

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Abstract

Tanzanian government is committed to ensure development in technological advancements in the country. Since 1990’s the government opened up for liberalized economy. Owing to that, the country has evidenced inter alia, the coming and opening of many telecommunication companies in the country. Their prevalence has given way to the licensing of service providers to deal with electronic communications. This in turn has motivated people to do business via electronic communications. From this point of view, the law ought to keep abreast with the technological changes happening in the world. This will help to ensure that justice is done throughout the country. The lagging behind of the legal regime should not act as barrier to this branch of technological advancement. This dissertation reviews the legal position in Tanzania pertinent to electronic communications, specifically on electronically stored information when tendered as evidence in courts. Chapter one contains the background of the issue of admissibility of electronic evidence in Tanzanian and how a Tanzanian court treats the issue. It traces the position before recognition of electronic evidence in Tanzania and the outcome thereof. It also contains literature review of various writers who have written on the topic of ‘‘Admissibility of Electronic Evidence in Tanzania: Law and Practice’’. Chapter two contains issues pertinent to admissibility of electronic evidence. Chapter three discusses the methodology employed in this dissertation. Questions used and libraries visited in the course of data collection. Chapter four provides for case analysis recognizing electronic evidence in Tanzania as equivalent to paper based evidence. The legal provisions pertinent to the discussion have been discussed too. Chapter five discusses the data collected from different online and traditional sources. Some comments from the author have also been included. Chapter six covers observations, recommendations and conclusions about electronic evidence in Tanzania and the way forward.

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