The Court of Appeal in Arusha has quashed the conviction and sentencing of Mahada Kipara, alias Kaemereri, alias Charles who the district court at Babati had ordered jailed 20 years or pay over Sh 1.34 billion fine for unlawful possession of eight pieces of elephant tusks, valued at 134,112,600/-. Justices Winfrida Korosso, Lucia Kairo and Amour Khamis noted that the District Court of Babati heard the case without consent from the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) as required by law under the Economic and Organised Crimes Control Act. “We agree with the learned Senior State Attorney that the trial court entertained this matter without having the requisite jurisdiction to do so,” they declared in their judgement delivered in Arusha recently. The state had prayed for a retrial but the Justices turned down the plea and Kipara walked out of court a free man. It is a settled principle of law that any decision reached by any court without jurisdiction is a nullity and there is a whole plethora of authorities on that issue, including the case of Fanuel Mantiri Ng’unda vs Herman Mantiri Ng’unda and 2 Others [1995] T.LR. 155, said the justices. “Applying the authorities to the situation at hand, it follows that the appellant was wrongly prosecuted before the trial court as correctly argued by the learned Senior State Attorney,” they ruled. It was not immediately clear Kipara had been wrongly incarcerated for how long but his ordeal started in 2017. Towards the end of February, 2017, while in their normal duties in the Makuyuni area, Rangers Solomon Jeremiah and a colleague heard that some people were looking for prospective buyers for elephant tusks. They plotted a trap and contacted the sellers, posing as prospective buyers. On March 1, 2017, they arranged a meeting at Burunge Park, Vilima Vitatu area and met the sellers who were five in number, including the appellant. After agreeing on the terms, the appellant went to the bush and re-emerged with a green polyethene bag containing eight pieces of elephant tusks. The two wildlife officers then introduced themselves as law enforcers and arrested the appellant as the other four scampered into thin air.
