Before colonial rule, dispute settlement procedures in the tribal societies of Kenya and Tanzania varied from communal procedures centred on self-help in the clan societies to a rudimentary adversarial system in the chiefly societies. On the arrival of the British and the Germans in the two countries respectively however, procedures started to change towards a uniform adversarial system. This process continued after independence. The thesis endeavours to find out whether there have been any consistent principles followed in the development of the law relating to civil litigation'in'Kenya and Tanzania. The major questions which the thesis addresses itself to are: (i) What were the procedures in the customary dispute settlement institutions? (ii) Were these changed after the establishment of colonial rule, and, if so, how? (iii) What were the principles behind these changes? (iv) What steps have the two Governments taken since independence respecting the law of civil procedure? (v) How far has the law reflected social circumstances of the two countries? Since the law of civil procedure in Kenya and Tanzania has been adopted from India, it has also been necessary to study the development of the Indian Code. The aim of this study was to discover the policies leading to the Code's adoption in Kenya and Tanzania. Although the two countries have since independence adopted different political and economic policies, the adversarial procedures which were developed during the period of colonial rule have been retained by both. However, the Indian-based law introduced technical procedures; incomprehensible to many litigants. Furthermore, legal assistance in the two countries is hard to get because of the smallness of the Bar and the poverty of the litigants. Thus, although the research has led to the conclusion that the adversarial procedures are there to stay, they must be modified so as to ensure that justice is actually done. Some Judges have been advocating that the court should play a more active role in assisting the parties, but this is difficult to achieve since the number of Judges and Magistrates is insufficient, and the legal knowledge of the supporting staff is inadequate. Many informal tribunals have developed as a result, but these lack the necessary powers of enforcement. The research is based on archival material, current public documents, Statutes and oral interviews.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:527027 |
| Date | January 1983 |
| Creators | Lamwai, Masumbuko Roman Mahunga |
| Publisher | SOAS, University of London |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
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