Kibanda, Makunga acquitted

Kisutu Resident Magistrate’s Court in Dar es Salaam yesterday acquitted former Tanzania Daima Managing Editor Absalom Kibanda and two others of charges of sedition due to lack of sufficient evidence.

The accused were acquitted under section 235 of Criminal Procedure Act (CPA), chapter 20 R.E 2002. 

Besides Kibanda the other accused persons were Mwananchi Communications Limited (MCL) Group Managing Editor Theophil Makunga and columnist Samson Mwigamba.

Kibanda and Mwigamba were charged with sedition while Makunga was charged with printing the seditious article.

Resident Magistrate Walialwande Lema who presided over the case delivered the historic judgment after the prosecution called three witnesses to testify against the accused and submitted one exhibit which was the Tanzania Daima Newspaper (Issue No. 2553 of November 30, 2011) which published the article.

Magistrate Lema said the prosecution failed to prove without reasonable doubt that the accused Mwigamba wrote the article and to prove how the accused Kibanda and Makunga are involved in the offences.

She said none of the witnesses who testified before the court said the accused Mwigamba wrote the article and Kibanda edited it, apart from the accused Mwigamba himself claiming during his defence that he wrote the article.

Magistrate Lema said the charges were based on conjecture and that the court cannot work on such charges.

She added that in the sedition charges no evidence was given to prove that the accused Kibanda and Mwigamba wrote the article.

Lema said the prosecution claimed that the article convinced the police not to heed orders from their bosses, but it does not contain hatred or incitement.

“The prosecution evidence does not show that there was hatred or breach of the peace caused by the publication and also does not reflect what witness David Kiiza claimed to this court during his testimony that the accused Mwigamba had meant to incite, because there was no police officer who disobeyed his boss,” Lema said.

Lema said the article that the accused wrote was an opinion piece.

Defence Advocate Naronyo Kicheere said the judgment was a victory to all journalists, because what Mwigamba did was to give his opinion on how the police should work better and did not engage in incitement.

Makunga was charged with printing a seditious article, while Kibanda and Mwigamba were charged with publishing the seditious article.

According to the public prosecutor, Kibanda and Mwigamba allegedly published the article in Tanzania Daima (Issue No. 2553 of November 30, 2011) under the headline ‘Waraka maalum kwa askari wote’ (meaning “A special letter to all security forces”) intending to cause disaffection against the lawful authority through the ‘Kalamu ya Mwigamba’ column.

He further alleged that the article written by Mwigamba was read and approved by Kibanda before being taken for printing.

Makunga, who is the third accused in the case, allegedly printed the article without considering that it covered seditious material aimed to incite security forces not to obey their leaders.

SOURCE: THE GUARDIAN