Faith Nyasuguta
Former Botswanan President Ian Khama has been formally charged with 14 counts relating to the illegal possession of firearms in what is the first attempt at the criminal prosecution of a previous head of state.
The former head of state was accused alongside three others including an ex-intelligence chief, a former police commissioner and an ex-deputy permanent secretary. The trio faces a total of 38 charges.
Among the criminal charges faced by ex president Khama us Illegal possession of firearms.
Under Botswana law, the illegal possession of guns could lead to a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison.
Ian Khama ruled Botswana between 2008 and 2018. In November 2021 the former president went into a self-imposed exile in South Africa.
Khama, 69, fell out with his handpicked successor Mokgweetsi Masisi whom he has accused of authoritarianism.
The court summons against the former leader comes ahead of current President Masisi’s planned meeting with South African President Cyril Ramaphosa in Pretoria on Friday.
In the runup to the 2019 general elections, Khama dramatically resigned from the Botswana Democratic Party, the party his father Seretse Khama founded and which has held power since 1966.
Khama, who is a former army general and led Botswana for a decade, is the eldest son of Botswana’s iconic first post-independence president, Seretse Khama.
Seretse Khama, whose life was portrayed in the 2016 film “A United Kingdom,” was leader of the southern African nation after independence from Britain in 1966 until his death in 1980.
