The phone rings every day.
Someone has been arrested. Or their mother is calling, or a friend, or a partner, whispering because they are afraid. They ask the same thing: Can you get us a lawyer?
And every day, we have to tell many of them no.
Not because we don’t care. Not because we don’t want to help. But because a lawyer costs money, and we don’t have it.
I want you to sit with that for a moment. Someone calls the one organization they hoped would help, and the answer is “we’re sorry, we can’t.”
Who is accountable when someone is sentenced to thirty years without proper legal representation? We believe the answer is not only the courts. It is all of us, including those of us who want to help and cannot afford to.
Three men in prison, and no appeal
Muharami Hassan Nayonga, Claudi Alex Mwinuka and Seleman Stafa Mtupa are in prison in Tanzania, each reportedly sentenced to 30 years for alleged same-sex sexual conduct. In our previous article, we wrote about Muharami. Claudi and Seleman received the same sentence, and almost no one wrote about them. There were no headlines and no public outcry.
Thirty years. We want the world to know they are in prison.
None of them had proper legal representation in court. No one was there to examine the evidence, challenge the case against them, or make sure their rights were protected.
And after they were sentenced, we could not appeal for them because we did not have the funds.
Not because there was nothing to challenge. Because there was no money to pay a lawyer to try.
They are not the only ones. There are many similar cases across the country. Because of the negative attitudes toward LGBTQ+ people, families stay silent, communities look away, and most of these stories never leave the courtroom.
I know what this feels like
This is not an abstract issue for me. I have been through it.
I was arrested and charged with promoting homosexuality. I was questioned for eight hours. I was detained. I was later released on bail, but my passport was held. Through all of it, I could not afford proper legal representation. I know the fear, the confusion and the loneliness of facing a system far bigger than you, without anyone who understands it standing at your side.
It is not fair to watch someone suffer because they could not afford a lawyer. I have lived it, and I do not want it to happen to anyone else.
What a lawyer actually costs
For most people, these numbers are small. For the people who call us, they are the difference between a defence and none.
- $200 covers a legal consultation, so a person understands the charge and their rights.
- $1,000 covers representation in a Primary Court case, including up to five people charged in the same case.
- $2,000 covers representation for a case in the High Court.
Arrests often involve more than one person, and when they do, no one should be left without a lawyer because the group could not afford one. A single gift of $1,000 can put a lawyer beside all of them.
Many of the people who call us have no way to raise even the smallest of these amounts.
Why we need legal aid that never sleeps
Arrests don’t wait for office hours. They happen at night, on weekends and in towns far from the big cities. The first hours matter most, when people are questioned, pressured and alone.
That is why we are building a legal aid pathway that is ready around the clock: lawyers and paralegals who can respond from the first hour after an arrest, through trial, and through appeal.
A lawyer cannot promise freedom. But a lawyer can make sure no one is convicted in silence, without anyone asking whether the evidence was sound or the process was fair.
Imagine being on the other end of the phone
Imagine you are arrested. You don’t fully understand the charge. You are told you could spend decades in prison. Your family doesn’t know where you are. You make one call to the one organization that might help, and they tell you they can’t afford a lawyer.
Now imagine that one gift could have changed that call.
Be the answer when the phone rings
You do not have to fix everything. You can fix one thing for one person, or for a whole group.
- Donors and foundations: Help us fund a legal aid pathway that does not run out of money before the next call comes in. $1,000 can give up to five people a lawyer in the same case.
- Lawyers and paralegals: Tell us you are willing to be on call, or to take a case at reduced cost.
- Allies and community members: Share this story. These people have been invisible for too long.
Every day we say no. We want to be able to say yes.
Help us say yes. Support LGBT Voice Tanzania’s legal aid pathway.
LGBT Voice Tanzania
