LOCAL RESEARCHERS - TANZANIA

Barnabas Ernest Kaniki. LLB (2011) from the University of Dar es Salaam. Post Graduate Diploma in Legal Practice (2017) from the Law School of Tanzania. LLM (Graduand) from the University of Dar Es Salaam.
Adv. Barnabas is a Human Rights Lawyer and an advocate of the High Court of Tanzania and subordinate courts thereto except for Primary, with experience in women’s rights, children’s rights, and advocacy for eight years. He has worked as Coordinator of Paralegal Program (2012-2015) and coordinated trainings to 400 paralegals in 18 districts of Tanzania mainland, who had worked to ensure access to justice to indigents within their communities. Currently Barnabas coordinates M&E unit at Tanzania Women Lawyers Association (TAWLA). He has also worked at various capacities such as a legal aid provider, trainer on women’s rights, program officer on women land rights, gender based violence and ending child marriage campaign.
Adv. Barnabas is also coordinating Mama Ardhi Coalition, a coalition of 10 local organizations in Tanzania working to promote women land rights in Tanzania. He also leads the legal team of Tanzania Ending Child Marriage Network.
Significantly, Barnabas’s experience and knowledge has been concentrated on promoting and protecting rights of the vulnerable and marginalized groups, especially women and children.
Christina Kamili Ruhinda is a Lawyer, holding a Master degree in Governance and Leadership – Executive Director of the Tanzania Network of Legal Aid Providers (TANLAP). She is also a Board Member of various Civil Societies Organizations and a Member of Ministry of Constitutional and Legal Affairs National Legal Aid Act Implementing Team. A Vital Voice Global Alumni (VVLEAD). She has further participated in Various African Union expert’s Meetings on collaboration between Informal and Formal Justice Structures for promotion of Rule of Law. Ms. Ruhinda has over 10 years of experience in the Legal Aid sub-sector, Human Rights, Gender, Governance, Justice and Rule of Law, Election Observation, Networking, Programme Management and Capacity Development. She has, inter alia, been engaged in the identification of potential issues that have had an effect on access to Justice in Tanzania; analyzing human rights abuses and proposing possible reforms; conducting assessment of Tanzania’s legislations, practice and capacities in respect to regional, continental and international human rights standards – treaty obligations and compliance. Ms. Ruhinda has authored a number of publications including thematic reports, articles and papers in international journals. She is fluent in English, Swahili, Ki – Rundi, Ki – Nyarwanda and has conversational French.
Chitung Said. I holds a multidiscipline master’s degree in International Cooperation and Development from Pavia University in Italy, with majors in human development, economics, project cycle management, capacity building, institutional strengthening, and policy development to mention a few. I have practical understanding and familiarity to work with both bilateral and multilateral donors’ funded programmes in Africa, with huge working experiences in development missions for international organisations in Angola, Uganda and Tanzania. My international development expertise fall under the areas of Programme management, Monitoring and evaluation, Research, Programme learning, Grant management, Proposal development, Organizational capacity assessment, Strategic plan development, policy and advocacy development, Fundraising and communication strategies. I have profound personal resilience working in multicultural settings and also in post-conflict areas, specifically in areas of health sector, Education, Livelihood, Agriculture, Civic engagement and Governance programme for Legal aid sector.
Deogratias Bwire is an Advocate of the High Court of Tanzania and subordinate courts thereto, a Human Rights and constitutional lawyer holding Master of laws in Human Rights and Comparative Constitutional Law from Central European University (Budapest). Currently he is working at the Tanzania Human Rights Defenders Coalition (THRDC) as the head of the Capacity Building and Empowerment desk.
As the head of the Capacity building and empowerment desk, he is involved in assessing capacity needs among target groups, developed capacity building plans, budgets, Monitoring and Evaluation plans and interventions strategies on security management based on the needs of the target groups, trained CSOs/HRDs and other target groups on various aspects of security and risk management, human rights and their enforcement mechanisms and report preparation.
As part of his skills to develop advocacy initiatives, he also heads the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) desk and coordinates the newly established CSOs Anti-torture Network of about 40 CSOs aiming at increasing Knowledge and Awareness of the occurrence of torture and Ill-treatment in Tanzania.
Apart from conducting trainings on security management and risk assessment training to human rights organizations, Mr. Deogratias has several times been invited present before freedom of expression and Online freedom stakeholders on various laws affecting free expression and internet rights in Tanzania mainly the cybercrimes Act, the Media Services Act, the Access to information and the 2018 Online Content Regulations. He has also got opportunities to attend various regional and global forums on online freedom such as the Forum on Internet Freedom in Africa (FIFAfrica).