Last year I was travelling from Kahama to Ushirombo in a bus. While comfortably sitting with my three year old child, a substance spilled over us from the luggage packed in the bus carrier. Unfortunately, my child sipped some drops of the substance. We lamented and asked the bus conductor to tell the owner of the luggage to take it and keep it under his seat. While taking it out of the carrier, we noted that it was a jelly can of pesticides. I am very disgusted as my child is not well since then and I have spent a lot of money to treat her. Was the passenger right to transport pesticide in a bus? Can I sue the passenger?
MM, Kahama
Transport of pesticides in a passengers’ vehicle is illegal. Section 50(2) of the Plant Health Act, 2020 prohibits transporting pesticides in passenger compartments of transport vehicles, in the same compartments as animals or in the same compartments as food, feed, drugs, toys, clothing, cosmetics or any other item that can be hazardous to human health if contaminated. Thus, the passenger was wrong to transport pesticide in the passengers’ compartment.

If the person who transported the pesticides contrary to the law is traceable, you can sue him. Since transporting pesticides in a passenger compartment of a vehicle is a crime, you can as well report the incident to the police. Because the wrongdoer is a natural person, section 59 of the Act imposes a fine of not less than TZS 50,000 but not exceeding TZS 10M or to imprisonment for a term of not less than 3 months but not exceeding 3 years or both.

In addition to the fine or imprisonment sentence to be imposed when the offender is found guilty, a Court has the power under section 61 of the Act to order compensation for a direct person injury, damage or loss suffered due to the commission of the offence under the Act. Therefore, on proof to the Court, you can recover the costs for treatment or the loss your child suffered due to the offence.

I am a graduate of Computer Science and am about to sign a contract of employment with a Company operating in Tanzania. I have read the contract just to note that there is one clause in it which prevents me ‘not to disclose any information of the employer to any government authority’. Is this clause valid under Tanzanian law? In case I sign the contract, can the employer in future successfully terminate my employment if I contravene this clause? I find the clause very awkward.
TR, Dar

Employees are only duty bound to abide to legitimate terms and conditions of their employment contracts. An employee cannot be compelled by their employer, in the contract of employment, not to disclose information to the government if the information assists the government to discover organised crimes, corruption offences, unethical conducts, illegal and dangerous activities and the like.

Section 14 of The Whistleblower and Witness Protection Act, 2015 (the Act) prohibits inclusion of a provision in a contract of employment or other agreement between an employer and an employee if it seeks to prevent an employee from disclosing wrongs for safeguarding the public interest. The section bars even inclusion of the clause which discourages employees from making disclosure of wrongs. If such a clause is included in the contract of employment, the law states that it is void. Even if you sign the contract, the employer cannot successfully fire you for contravention of such a clause as the same is void. In case the employer terminates your employment based on contravention of that clause, you can successfully defend your case for being unfairly terminated. Moreover, you can apply to the authority to which you made a disclosure for protection if you disclosed the information in good faith, you had a reasonable cause to believe that the information of the wrongdoing reported was substantially valid and you made the disclosure in a manner prescribed by the Act.

Last year my father passed away when I was still a college student. I then booked to travel to Kigoma by train the next day after receiving the message of my father’s demise. On the traveling date we departed three hours late from Dar. They only announced that the train would leave late and we were not given even a bottle of soda to console us. On reaching Kilosa the train experienced some technical problems and for that matter we stayed there for further eighteen hours.  I reached Kigoma at night, just to find that my father was buried that evening. Can I sue for damages from the Tanzania Railway Corporation (TRC) for the delay in Kilosa? Is it fair to announce the delay of commencing the journey without treating us at least with bites?
ML, Kigoma

The Railways Act, 2017 (the Act), explicitly provides that Tanzania Railways Corporation is not liable for any loss arising from delay caused by the failure of any train to start on or complete any journey within a set time. According to Section 37(2) (c) of the Act, when TRC fails to complete the journey for whatever reason within 48 hours, the Corporation is only obliged to refund the fare paid by the passenger or provide an alternative means of transport available and affordable to the Corporation. In your case, as long as the delay was only for 18 hours and you were transported to your destination, your claim for damages cannot succeed.

Regarding the delay to commence the journey, section 37(2) (b) of the Act gives obligation to TRC to immediately inform the passengers, through a public address, that the train will leave late. Unfortunately, the law doesn’t spell out how the Corporation should treat passengers during the period of delay.