Two Babati Residents Sentenced 20 years Jail imprisonment for Giraffe Poaching

Mussa Juma, MAIPAC

maipacarusha20@gmail.com 

The Babati District Court, in Manyara region has sentenced two residents of Babati in Manyara region to Jail imprisonment for 20 years each after being convicted in a case of economic sabotage, after they were caught having killed a Giraffe and found a shipment of Giraffe meat.

 

Those citizens, Paulo Himid John (23) Athuman Misanya (31) were arrested on February 2, 2024 in the Burunge WMA's, with Giraffe meat and Giraffe carcass worth 50,079,208 million shillings.

Reading the judgment last week, the Magistrates of Babati district court, Victor Kimario said the court has convicted them after being satisfied with the evidence provided by the prosecution.

He said that in order to serve as a lesson to other people who are involved in poaching incidents that sabotage the economy, the court sentences the accused to serve 20 years in prison Jail each.

Magistrate Kimario said the equipment of the suspects they were arrested with while carrying the meat, including the motorcycle, has been nationalized by the government.

Earlier, the prosecutors Getrude William Kariongi and Shahidu Kajwangya of the Tanzania Wildlife Management Authority (TAWA) assisted by the State lawyer Mwanaidi Chuma asked the court to give a punishment that will send a message to others to stop doing such poaching.

Lawyer Kariongi said that the crime committed by the suspects is to sabotage the economy and kill the Giraffe which is a major attraction of tourism, apart from that, the giraffe is the symbol of this nation where the animal is an honor to our nation

In that case, the accused were defended by lawyer Justine Jackson who, before the day of judgment was scheduled, was presented with a request to ask the court to re-call the two witnesses of the Republic to ask them questions after going through the evidence they gave an argument that was opposed by the prosecution lawyers.

The Government Prosecutors Getrude Kariongi and Shahidu Kajwagya from TAWA asked the court to reject the application because when the Republic's witness number one and number two were testifying, the accused were present and the court gave them the opportunity to ask questions (cross-examination) of the witnesses.

Kariongi said, the suspects were given the opportunity to question the witnesses but they said they had no questions.

So he explained that according to article 147 subsection 4 of the law of evidence, it talks about further questions (further cross-examination or examinations in chief) in the sense that if the accused said they have no questions, that is, they did not ask questions at all and according to that law, more questions should be and the question asked by the lawyer should have the opportunity to continue asking other questions from where the previous question was asked.

He quoted the decisions of the high court in Moshi in the case of Bakari Yahaya Ausen against the Republic case number 646/2016 and the decisions of the Court of Appeal in the case of Shomari Mohamedi Mkwama against the Republic case number 606 in 2021 sitting in Dar es Salaam which explained the circumstances of witnesses to be called again.

 So after those arguments, the presiding magistrate Kimario gave a small decision and rejected the request of the defense because during the testimony of the witnesses, the accused were given the opportunity to ask questions and they said they did not.

The arrest of poaching suspects in the Burunge Wildlife management area is due to the creation of a special task force to combat poaching in the area.

The force is made up of TAWA Rangers, Burunge WMA Rangers, Tarangire National Parks Rangers and  from chem chem Association Rangers who have invested in Burunge WMA's.

For years, the Chem chem Association has invested in photo tourism and hotel activities spends more than 450 million shillings to fight poaching and provide education on conservation of wildlife and the environment.

The end