I don’t see how Lissu gets his way in this. First, this is Tanzania—the system is rigged in favor of the big kahunas:
🔹The President is shielded by absolute constitutional immunity from any court processes or subpoenas while in office.
🔹The VP and PM are protected under the amended Basic Rights and Duties Enforcement Act, which insulates top leaders from individual court actions or personal capacity summonses. Because Tundu Lissu’s treason charges are tied to political events, public speeches, and state actions that took place during their tenure, Mpango and Majaliwa remain legally insulated. The law establishes that an official's actions belong to the State, not the individual. Therefore, even as private citizens, they cannot be personally dragged into court to testify about state operations; any legal inquiry must still be directed at the State through the Attorney General. Maybe if they just choose to testify voluntarily like how former President Mkapa proceeded in Costa Mahalu’s case. The probability of this happening is remote though.
Second, the High Court procedural discretion on relevance will be an extremely hard hurdle to overcome. Under Tanzanian criminal procedure, a court is not obligated to issue a subpoena just because a defendant requests one. The judges maintain strict gatekeeping power and will evaluate the relevance and necessity of the witnesses:
🔹The defense must demonstrate that a witness has direct, material, and firsthand knowledge of the specific facts of the alleged treason.
🔹The court will probably rule that calling the former second- and third-in-command is legally unnecessary, as the defense can obtain any relevant official government records or communications directly from active state repositories via the Attorney General.