THE Samia Legal Aid Campaign program (MSLAC) has said that it will encourage many law students who graduate from universities to join the Law School of Tanzania to have many advocates and lawyers to defend people's rights.

This was said yesterday by the assistant director of the justice monitoring unit in the Ministry of Constitution and Legal Affairs, Beatrice Mpembo, who and other lawyers are on the ongoing tour of President Samia Suluhu Hassan in Morogoro region.

Speaking in a telephone interview, Mpembo said in that tour, they have been taking various legal challenges of the people to go to work on them, many of which are conflicts that need to be resolved by the law.

She said that if many students are motivated to study at Law School, Tanzania will get many lawyers and results to access lawyers and advocates and be easy for ordinary citizens to hire them.

 "Our legal aid team on this visit of President  Samia is classifying areas related to various constitutional rights to advise the government so that every citizen can obtain these rights easily and equally," she said.

Mpembo said that when President Samia visited Mzumbe University in the region, the  Legal Aid team had the opportunity to identify areas of cooperation between the Ministry of Justice and the university.

"One of the areas is to encourage students who graduate from this university and others to join the Law School of Tanzania which is under the Ministry of Constitution and Legal Affairs to expand the scope of getting enough lawyers that the ministry will use in this Samia Legal Aid campaign,” she said

She said that until the end of the President's visit, many citizens will have benefited from the legal assistance that they have been providing in every area that President Samia has visited.

"We have met a lot of citizens and they are happy to get legal aid education and others have given us their challenges which we have taken up and gone to work on and people  in general have really enjoyed this visit of the honorable President Samia," said Mpembo

She said the Samia Legal Aid Campaign is a continuous campaign to provide citizens with legal aid education and solve the various challenges faced by those who cannot retain lawyers in their proceedings.

The Acting Director of Legal Aid Services from the Ministry of Constitution and Law, Ester Msambazi, said that when people get legal education and legal advice, they get the ability to understand legal procedures and their rights, thus reducing unnecessary complaints and conflicts in society.

"This campaign aims to promote legal aid services to citizens in a simple and accessible way. Through counseling and legal education clinics, citizens get the opportunity to be consulted by legal experts free of charge," she said

She said that the campaign also aims to create a more informed society with the ability to claim and protect their land rights by the law.

She also said it helps to promote equality and justice in society, to respect the wishes of the deceased, to prevent inheritance disputes, and to manage property in a way that follows the law and each other's rights.

"Citizens need legal help to get their rights, so this campaign provides legal help through help centers, lawyers, and legal education, focusing on land disputes, inheritance, and human rights and increases understanding of the law and access to rights in Tanzania," she said.

She also said the campaign contributes to good governance that includes transparency, accountability, and the participation of citizens in decisions and the implementation of laws and public policies.

Mama Samia Legal Aid Campaign was introduced in April last year starting from Dodoma region and until now seven regions have been reached apart from Dodoma the other regions that have been reached are Manyara, Singida, Simiyu, Shinyanga, Njombe, and Ruvuma and it has benefited more than 494,000 people.

The campaign has already reached seven regions, 42 councils, 452 wards, and 1,348 villages/streets, which has touched the people by providing them with free legal aid, including prisoners and detainees.

MSLAC statistics show that 7,166 prisoners, 6,824 men and 342 women, were approached and given legal assistance in various prisons in the country.