To mark 58 years of the union between Tanganyika and Zanzibar, President Samia Suluhu Hassan has freed 3,826 prisoners from different correctional facilities across the country.
The two countries merged in 1964 to form the current Tanzania in cementing the kinship of their peoples and for security reasons.
The then President of Tanganyika Julius Nyerere and his Zanzibar counterpart Abeid Amani Karume agreed to unite after series of deliberations that resulted into the Articles of Union.
The Head of State normally pardons some inmates during celebrations of the Union marked every April 26 and during the Independence anniversaries on December 9.
“It’s a historical day to our nation,” Home Affairs minister Hamad Masuni said in a statement.
“Her Excellency the President exercised her constitutional powers to pardon the 3,826 prisoners in celebrating the 58 years of the union between Tanganyika and Zanzibar,” he added.
The presidential pardon will involve inmates in terminal stage, those with chronic ailments, above 70 years, nursing mothers and those with physical and mental disorders but all must have served at least quarter of their sentence, the statement added.
All prisoners who have served at least, a quarter of their sentences are also eligible to a reduction of a quarter of their sentences.
A year ago, out of over 30,000 from different correctional facilities across the country, President Hassan pardoned 5,001 prisoners.
