Abstract

The article explores the effectiveness of the ward tribunals in Tanzania in promoting justice at the grassroots level. Ward Tribunals are community-based institutions that aim to provide accessible and affordable justice to local communities. However, the article finds that Ward Tribunals have been faced with some challenges such as the tribunals are sitting once a week thus legal services are not provided timely and most of the cases take longer to be heard at an average of six months. The challenges in handling cases in the tribunals have made the quality of legal services in tribunals unsatisfactory. This notion has been associated with residents' limited understanding of by-laws passed by tribunals, corruption, limited understanding of laws and legal procedures among tribunal members, poor working infrastructures like courtrooms, offices, and inadequate rooms to accommodate the claimants and defendants stationeries. Both analyses of primary and secondary data revealed that poor governance of ward tribunals affects their effectiveness in dispensing justice as ward tribunals. However, despite the challenges, ward tribunals have not been without important achievements. Ward Tribunals also, have been successful in improving access to justice, reducing case backlog, and increasing community participation in disputes in dispute resolution. The above analysis and conclusion indicate that, the establishment of ward tribunals was a good idea, but its governance has to be improved so that they can be effective in dispensing justice. It is hereby recommended that to improve the effectiveness of ward tribunals in dispensing justice, ward tribunals need to have good facilities like buildings, furniture, and remunerations to members and secretaries be permanent and pensionable employees of the local government where the ward tribunal situates as required by law. The study underscores the importance of community-based justice mechanisms in enhancing justice delivery at the grassroots level in Tanzania.

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