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<\/div>\n<\/div>\nChildren\u2019s rights activists have condemned the pardon of two child rapists by the Tanzanian president.<\/p>\n
Kate McAlpine, director of the Arusha-based Community for Children Rights, told the BBC she was \u201chorrified but unsurprised\u201d.<\/p>\n
John Magufuli made the pardon in his independence day speech on Saturday.<\/p>\n
Singer Nguza Viking, known as Babu Seya, and his son Johnson Nguza, known as Papii Kocha, were pardoned for raping 10 primary schoolgirls.<\/p>\n
The president selected a group of prisoners to be released, who he said had corrected their behaviour.<\/p>\n
Ms McAlpine said the pardon illustrated Mr Magufuli showed a \u201clack of understanding about violence against children\u201d.<\/p>\n
She linked this latest speech to his June announcement where he banned pregnant schoolgirls from returning to school.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe has a blind spot when it comes to recognising children as victims. Pregnant schoolgirls are pregnant because they are victims of violence.\u201d<\/p>\n
Child rape cases in Tanzania tend to be dealt with between families, or rapists have been known to pay off police and court staff, Ms McAlpine said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s extremely rare for child rape cases to get to court in Tanzania,\u201d she said, and even rarer for the culprits to get life sentences.<\/p>\n
Despite this, Viking and Nguza were sentenced to life in prison for raping 10 girls in 2003 aged between six and eight years who were pupils at a primary school in the Tanzanian city Dar es Salaam.<\/p>\n
They had served 13 years of their sentence when they were released on Saturday.<\/p>\n
Local media say the singers were met by cheering crowds when they emerged from jail.<\/p>\n
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Source: BBC<\/p>\n
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