{About 19 cases of rape and sodomy are reported daily in Tanzania as sexual violence against women has reached an alarming proportion, the government has said.}
The Minister for Constitution and Legal Affairs, Dr Harrison Mwakyembe, said in Parliament here yesterday that the number of cases which also include defilement of children, might not reflect the reality as many more incidents go unreported.
In his reply to a question from Angelina Malembeka (Special seats – CCM), he said statistics show there has been 2,031 cases of rape and sodomy reported to police from January to March, this year.
“The problem has reached an alarmingproportion and these are reported cases. It is not surprising if there will be many more that are not reported,” he said in his reply to a supplementary question from Malembeka.
He said 111 cases have been finalised in courts of law with 19 convicts jailed and 1,920 cases continue. Ms Malembeka had asked the minister why rapists were not castrated after conviction so as to act as deterrence.
The minister said he could not answer that but it was upon Members of Parliament (MPs) to come up with proposals for a review of the Sexual Offences and Special Provisions (SOSPA) of 1998 to include clauses for more stern measures for rape offenders.
“I don’t have the answers here. The MP should come up with a proposal. The proposal should be brought in here. It is you MPs who will endorse that,” he said.
Dr Mwakyembe said sodomy and defilement felonies were happening and reported from many areas of the country and it is true that many of such cases were being handled at family level under agreement between suspects and parents of the victims.
He said the tendency to solve such cases at home inconvenience police investigations and deny children their rights.
The minister said the problem could not be solved by the police and other state organs without cooperation from the people who live with the suspects.
The government has been conducting public education that concealing evidence and solving such cases at the family level is not only a an offence, but also it contributes to an increase of the cases.
To put friendly environment for victims of gender based violence (GBV) and people with evidence of such incidents, the government has opened Gender Desks at police stations which receive cases and evidences of GBV and assist in investigations.
He said the government was committed to protect the rights of girls and women and that is why they have put stern measures to deter incidents of GBV.
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