Dar es Salaam — The High Court on Friday, August 21, 2026, found that CHADEMA national chairperson Tundu Lissu has a case to answer on the treason charge arising from his April 2025 remarks on the election. 

The decision does not amount to a conviction. It means the three-judge panel concluded that the prosecution’s evidence and Lissu’s submissions were sufficient at this stage to require him to enter a defence.

For readers joining the story now, the case has travelled through more than 16 months of litigation. It began with Lissu’s arrest after a CHADEMA rally in Mbinga, Ruvuma region, moved through a lengthy committal process at Kisutu, and then into a High Court trial marked by disputes over anonymous witnesses, courtroom access, police evidence and the meaning of the words attributed to him.

What follows is a timeline of the principal moments that explain how the trial reached Friday’s ruling. Each entry links to the relevant full report published by The Chanzo:

April 3, 2025: During a meeting with CHADEMA aspirants at the party’s Mikocheni offices in Dar es Salaam, Lissu speaks about the party’s No Reforms, No Election campaign. Prosecutors would later rely on remarks from this meeting, including statements about stopping the election, mobilising rebellion and kukinukisha, as the foundation of the treason count.

April 9, 2025: Police arrest Lissu in Mbinga, Ruvuma region, after he had concluded a CHADEMA rally under the same reform campaign. CHADEMA said he was moved to Dar es Salaam that night, together with other party officials who were also detained.

April 10, 2025: After interrogation at Dar es Salaam’s Central Police Station, Lissu is taken to the Kisutu Resident Magistrate’s Court. He is charged with treason, a capital offence, and separately faces counts of publishing false information. The treason investigation is not complete, so the case remains at the committal stage, where the lower court handles the preliminary process before a High Court trial.

April 24, 2025: The first weeks of the case are also marked by conflict over access to the court. People who sought to attend Lissu’s Kisutu hearing are prevented from entering, while reports and eyewitness accounts allege arrests, beatings and the abandonment of some detainees in bush areas.

May 6 and May 19, 2025: The Kisutu court urges the prosecution to complete its investigation and provide an update. It also directs the prison service to produce Lissu physically at the next hearing and maintains that the proceedings should remain open to the public. By May 19, however, the prosecution still says its investigation is being finalised.

June 16, 2025: Lissu tells the court he will represent himself. He says restrictions on confidential consultations with his lawyers have made it impossible for him to prepare a defence through counsel in the ordinary way. The court accepts his decision, setting the pattern for the hearings that follow, in which he personally conducts his own legal arguments and cross-examinations.

July 1, 2025: Still at Kisutu, Lissu asks the court to order the State to withdraw the case or to move it to the High Court. He describes repeated delays in completing the investigation as an abuse of the court process.

July 15 to August 18, 2025: A dispute over witness security becomes a defining feature of the case. Prosecutors say they need protection for civilian witnesses, and the High Court approves protective measures that permit anonymous testimony. After the prosecution asks to halt live broadcasting on witness-protection grounds, Kisutu later orders that live transmissions of the proceedings stop.

September 8, 2025: The treason trial formally begins at the High Court, Dar es Salaam Sub-Registry. Lissu again tells the court that he will defend himself and raises preliminary objections, including concerns over the papers and procedures before the panel.

September 15 to September 22, 2025: The judges dismiss Lissu’s principal preliminary objections, later rule the charge sheet valid, and clear the way for the prosecution to begin calling witnesses. The rulings do not decide Lissu’s guilt or innocence. They determine that the trial can continue to the evidence stage.

October 6 to October 17, 2025: The prosecution begins its evidence. Police witnesses describe the investigation, while Lissu cross-examines them on their written statements, the alleged publication of the speech and the legal ingredients of treason. The case then turns to digital evidence, including a flash disk, memory card and a police forensic examination of the Jambo TV video.

October 22 and October 23, 2025: In a major evidentiary setback for the prosecution, the High Court finds that the police witness called to tender the video material is not qualified to do so. The flash disk and memory card are not admitted through that witness, and the court subsequently rejects the related forensic report. Lissu uses the next hearing to challenge the remaining police evidence.

October 24, 2025: The prosecution fails to bring witnesses to court. The matter is adjourned to November 3, while Lissu remains in remand custody through the October 29 General Election.

November 10 and November 12, 2025: Proceedings are first postponed when the prison service does not produce Lissu and the prosecution does not bring witnesses, with unspecified security concerns cited. Two days later, Lissu challenges the prosecution’s plan to use a completely concealed witness, arguing that the arrangement lacks sufficient safeguards for a fair trial. That challenge produces another long interruption in the case.

February 9 and February 11, 2026: After the break, the High Court resumes the trial to hear arguments over the secret-witness arrangement. The judges grant Lissu a limited victory by ordering modifications that would enable them to see the witness, but reject his wider challenge to the witness-protection framework and allow the trial to continue.

February 12 to February 20, 2026: The court hears a succession of prosecution witnesses. Lissu’s cross-examinations focus on differences between their oral evidence and police statements, the basis for the alleged election-disruption offences, and the use of concealed witnesses. These hearings also feature separate court orders on witness-protection law, concerns over Lissu’s treatment in custody, and a judicial refusal of the prosecution’s request to restrict reporting on the proceedings.

February 23 and February 24, 2026: The legal dispute shifts from the witness box to a prosecution bid to add evidence from ACP Amini Mahamba, a witness who had already testified. The High Court strikes out the notice, finding that the procedure invoked by the prosecution does not allow a previously heard witness to be recalled in that way. The DPP immediately seeks revision at the Court of Appeal, and the High Court stays the trial pending the outcome.

February 23, 2026: Alongside the litigation, the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention issues an opinion finding Lissu’s detention arbitrary and calling for his release and compensation. The finding does not itself end the domestic treason proceedings, but it adds an international human-rights dimension to the case.

June 11, 2026: The Court of Appeal hearing of the DPP’s revision application, initially scheduled for this date, is postponed to July 6 without an explanation in the notice issued by the registrar. The postponement prompts questions from CHADEMA and prolongs the High Court stay.

July 30, 2026: The Court of Appeal dismisses the DPP’s revision application. It agrees that the prosecution’s notice to add evidence through a witness who had already testified was misconceived, leaving the High Court’s February ruling intact and removing the appellate barrier to the trial’s resumption.

August 10 to August 13, 2026: The High Court trial resumes. ACP Amini Mahamba, who coordinated the investigation, testifies about how police examined the video of Lissu’s April 2025 speech and connected it to files from several regions. During cross-examination, Lissu questions who actually published the video. A confidential Jambo TV journalist later tells the court that the outlet’s team livestreamed the meeting and that Lissu did not operate the camera or instruct staff to post the footage.

August 17, 2026: The prosecution closes its case after calling 17 witnesses, although it had listed 30. Lissu submits that there is no prima facie case to answer, arguing, among other things, that the evidence does not prove an intention to intimidate the institutions named in the law or prove that he published the disputed video. The prosecution responds that its oral evidence is enough to require a defence.

August 21, 2026: The High Court panel, led by Justice Dunstan Ndunguru, rules that Lissu has a case to answer under Section 39(2)(d) of the Penal Code. The judges say that at this stage they are not required to undertake a detailed assessment of the credibility of the evidence. Lissu is directed to enter his defence.

The ruling moves the case into its defence stage. Lissu may now give evidence, call witnesses, or rely on the legal choices available to an accused person. Lissu told the court on Friday that he will call evidence, naming high-profile figures like President Samia Suluhu Hassan and Prime Minister Mwigulu Nchemba, among others, as his witnesses.

Only after the defence stage, if it proceeds, will the High Court determine whether the prosecution has proved the treason charge beyond reasonable doubt, the standard of proof in criminal matters.