"I call on all Ministers and Assistant Ministers and every other person to sing like parrots. During Mzee Kenyatta's period, I persistently sang the Kenyatta tune. [When] people said ‘This fellow has nothing to say except sing for Kenyatta,' I said I did not have ideas of my own. Who was I to have my own ideas? I was in Kenyatta's shoes and therefore I had to sing whatever Kenyatta wanted. If I had sung another song, do you think Kenyatta would have left me alone? Therefore you ought to sing the song I sing. If I put a full stop, you should put a full stop. This is how the country will move forward. The day you become a big person, you will have the liberty to sing your own song and everybody will sing it".

Historically,sedition is the crime of speaking words against the state. Its basicpremise, that it is wrong to criticise the leadership, fundamentallyflies in the face of the tenets of democracy which demand the abilityto criticise leaders as a sina qua non for informed choice. In itsmodern meaning, the charge of sedition first appeared in theElizabethan Era (c. 1590) as the "notion of inciting by words orwritings disaffection towards the state or constituted authority".According to Curtis C. Breight, author of Surveillance, Militarism and Drama in the Elizabethan Era,sedition complemented treason and martial law: while treason controlledprimarily the privileged and ecclesiastical opponents, and martial lawfrightened commoners, sedition was meant to cow intellectuals. UnderEnglish common law, a statement is seditious if it "brings into hatredor contempt" the Queen or her heirs, or the government andconstitution, or either House of Parliament, or the administration ofjustice, or if it incites people to attempt to change any matter ofChurch or State established by law (except by lawful means), or if itpromotes discontent among or hostility between British subjects. Aperson is only guilty of the offence if they intend any of the aboveoutcomes and, interestingly, proving that the statement is true is nota defence. It is punishable with life imprisonment.

Thin-skinnedAfrican despots have recurrently deployed sedition legislation thatderives from their UK and French colonial heritage to deal with dissentand to contain bothersome journalists. According to the WorldAssociation of Newspapers (WAN) , laws on insulting leaders are inforce in 48 out of 53 African countries, and are "the greatest scourge"of press freedom on the continent. In the first five months of 2007,"insult" laws led to the harassment, arrest or imprisonment of 103journalists in 26 African countries.

Last week's brutalabduction and torture of Uganda's Radio One talk show host and The EastAfrican contributor Robert Kalundi Serumaga, and his release on bailafter being charged with six counts of sedition, is only the latestincident. Serumaga who spent four days in police custody was accused bythe state of "intention to bring into hatred, contempt and to excitedisaffection against the person of the President" during a televisionshow on September 11. Less than a month ago, 3 executives on theUgandan bimonthly magazine The Independent were interrogated by policefor four hours because they published an allegedly seditious cartoonthat was critical of the president, Yoweri Museveni. One of three,managing editor Andrew Mwenda, is already facing a sedition charge from2005, one of 21 criminal counts that he is fighting in the courts.

In2005, Mwenda was arrested and charged with "sedition" and his employer,KFM Radio, was briefly banned after he commented on a possible Ugandangovernment role in the death of southern Sudanese leader John Garangwhile hosting a phone-in radio show. Among other things, Mwenda blamedPresident Yoweri Museveni and the Ugandan government for themismanagement of Garang's security after he died in a helicopter crash.

InKenya, sedition laws (Section 56, 57 and 58 of the Penal Code) wererepealed by the IPPG reforms of 1997. Prior to that, they were used tocurtail any form of discontent, their enforcement sometimes verging onthe ridiculous. For example, in 1990 Rev. Lawford Ndege Imunde wassentenced to 6 years imprisonment for "printing and possessingseditious publications exciting disaffection against the President orthe Government of Kenya" after he noted in his desk diary that RobertOuko was murdered with the connivance of the government.

ThoughArticle 18 of the Tanzanian Constitution guarantees every Tanzanian theright to freedom of opinion and expression, the Newspaper Act of 1976allows authorities within the government-including the president-thepower to prohibit publications that might be deemed to not be in thenation's best interest. It defines an act, speech or publication asseditious if it aims to bring lawful authority into hatred or contempt,or excites disaffection against the same, or promotes feelings ofill-will and hostility between different categories of the population.Anyone printing or publishing a newspaper which contravenes theseprovisions is liable to face a fine or a maximum sentence of 3 years.In October 2008, the radical tabloid, Mwanahalisi,was banned for 3 months for allegedly publishing seditious articles.Information Minister George Mkuchika explained the rationale behind theban thus: "The newspaper is fond of publishing articles that ridiculesenior government leaders including president Jakaya Kikwete and theruling Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM)."

Matters are not much better in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where Nsimba Embete Ponte, editor of the biweekly L'Interprète,was last year handed a 10-month prison sentence for "insulting"President Joseph Kabila by referring to rumours about Kabila's healthin a series of articles. Arrested on 7 March 2008 in Kinshasa bymembers of the National Intelligence Agency (ANR), Ponte was heldincommunicado for three months before being transferred to the mainKinshasa penitentiary.

In Burundi, Anaias Havyarimana and HonoréMisago were arrested in September 2008 on charges of insultingPresident Pierre Nkurunziza after they were overheard criticizing hiseducation policy in a private conversation. They were both remanded incustody until their acquittal in December. In November , well-knownformer radio journalist and political activist, Alexis Sinduhije, wascharged with "insulting the President," based on a document found inhis possession following an illegal police search during which a searchwarrant for different premises altogether was delivered two hours late,referring to a judicial file that did not yet exist. The recovereddocument purpotedly stated that "the responsibility for the corruptionscandals and the assassinations ordered by the party CNDD-FDD lie withthe man who passes his time in prayer meetings," and, according to theprosecution, referred to and insulted President Nkurunziza, aborn-again Christian.

Gambian law intimidates independent pressthrough prison terms for reporters found guilty of sedition - broadlydefined - or libel, and a requirement that newspaper proprietors mustsign a US$16,600 bond (with their houses as guarantees) to be allowedto publish. In 2008 UK missionaries David and Fiona Fulton weresentenced to a year's hard labour over "seditious" email to friends inLondon in which they describe the Gambian President, Yahya Jammeh, aman who believes he can cure AIDS on Thursdays using herbs and bananas,as a "madman". They were also fined £6,250 each. They pleaded guilty tocharges of "printing, publishing or reproducing publications withintent to bring hatred or contempt or to excite disaffection againstthe president or the government".

In 2007, 5 journalists and ateacher were convicted of insulting Mali President Amadou ToumaniToure, and given suspended sentences over a school essay. TeacherBassirou Kassim Minta had asked his final-year secondary school classto write a humorous essay about the mistress of a fictional Africanleader. He was arrested, along with Seydina Oumar Diarra, a journalistwho wrote an article in the Info-Matinnewspaper criticising the teacher for assignment. Following thedetentions, the article was reprinted in other newspapers, leading tothe arrest of the other journalists.

Côte d'Ivoire journalistNanankoua Gnamanteh was brought before an Abidjan court in March thisyear on a charge of insulting President Laurent Gbagbo in an articlethat appeared in Le Repèreunder the headline "Ali Baba and his 40 thieves" together with a photoof the president and several of his close associates and referring toGbagbo's period as president as "nine years of political fraud...outright theft, embezzlement and kleptomania at the summit of thestate." The prosecutor requested a two-year prison sentence and askedthe court to suspend Le Repèrefor eight months and to fine its publisher, Eddy Péhé, 10 million CFAfrancs (15,200 euros), despite the fact, as noted by Reporters WithoutBorders, that the country had decriminalized press offences. Gnamantehand Péhé were fined 20 millions CFA francs (30,000 euros) each, and thenewspaper was suspended for eight weeks.

Though EgyptianPresident Hosni Mubarak has pledged to amend the 1996 Press Law andabolish prison sentences for press offenses, that did not save IbrahimIssa and Sahar Zaki, editor and journalist, respectively, of theopposition weekly Al-Dustur,who were each sentenced to one year in prison in June 2006 for"insulting the President" and "spreading false or tendentious rumours."The charges were brought by the so-called "ordinary people ofal-Warrak," who were reportedly offended by an April 2005 article whichreported on a lawsuit brought by a man from the village who accusedPresident Mubarak of unconstitutional conduct and ‘wasting foreign aid'during the privatisation of state-owned companies.

In Zimbabwe,even musicians have not been spared. Happison Mabika, and PatienceTakaona, have been in hiding since last year when they failed to attenda court to answer charges of singing songs ‘too sensitive andinsulting' President Robert Mugabe. Their lawyer Charles Kwaramba laterclaimed that the duo were in fear for their lives. Although the countrynow has a coalition government, Dread Reckless and Sister Fearless, asthey are better known by their fans, have not emerged. If convicted,the two face a two-year stint in jail.

In many jurisdictionsacross the globe, sedition is either formally or effectively a deadletter. Recognising that criminal sanctions for criticism of leadersshould never be imposed, the British government has not charged anyonewith sedition in over 30 years and has announced its intention torepeal the law. It is time African governments cottoned on to this. Fortoo long, governments on the continent have used these laws"ruthlessly, to prevent critical appraisal of their performance and todeprive the public from information about their misdemeanours", as WANput it. Ugandan journalist Andrew Mwenda succinctly captured the ironyof the situation, explaining that "in a country that is a democracy (orpretends to be) and not a monarchy, it is my right to cause publicdisaffection against the person of the President or the government sothat at the next election people can vote against both."