By The EastAfrican

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The recent freeing of Tanzanian opposition politician Freeman Mbowe after eight months of incarceration, should be cause for both celebration and deep introspection.

The Chadema party chairman was alongside other party leader arrested in Mwanza last July on the eve of a rally during which they planned to launch a campaign for constitutional reforms. They were charged with several offences, including terrorism.

Their arrest and subsequent lengthy detention represented a troubling turn by President Samia who had until that point, been largely seen as the reformist leader who would lead Tanzania’s healing from per predecessor’s years of tyranny. Yet perhaps even more troubling, should be the circumstances surrounding Mbowe’s release.

As recently as February 18, a justice of Tanzania’s high court had ruled that Mbowe and his co-accused had a case to answer after the prosecution completed their submissions. He scheduled the case to go to trial starting March 4. The just like that, without any ceremony, prosecutors dropped the charges when court convened.

That suggests two possibilities. Prosecutors arrested in a fishing expedition and then failed to find evidence to pin him or; even worse, the case was just a holding charge designed to keep a political competitor out of circulation. These circumstances lend credence to his insistence that his incarceration was politically motivated. One can as well conclude that his release was equally politically instigated, since the president had been petitioned to have him released.

Whatever the case, it barely conceals the festering wound of democracy and failed justice in Tanzania in particular and East Africa in general. With a few exceptions, the judiciary in the region have been reduced to quislings or errand boys the Executive. Magufuli used them the way he wanted, Samia is extracting political capital out of it.

Mbowe’s case mirrors that of Ugandan opposition legislators Allan Ssewanyana and Muhamad Ssegirinya, who were arrested last September and variously got charged with murder and terrorism. Their latest plea for release on bail fell through after the prosecution pleased for an adjournment, to allow them amend the charge sheet. The case has not made any substantial progress and the only hope for interim freedom for the suspects lies in the 180-day constitutional limit after which bail becomes automatic.

Ssewanyana and Ssegirinya are not the only victims of the unholy alliance between Uganda’s judiciary and the executive. The courts have become deaf and blind to their basic ethos; and to what is happening around the country as people get arrested and tortured in total disregard of the rule of law. Dozens of people arrested for political expression, remain on trial in military courts which have not made any substantive progress towards disposing the cases more than a year since prosecution started.

In Kenya, the where the executive has many times disregarded court orders, the deportation and disenfranchisement of Dr Miguna Miguna, will perhaps go down as one of the most infamous moments of President Uhuru Kenyatta's presidency.

Mbowe's release is welcome, but his arrest should not have happened in the first place. Or the judiciary should have had the spine to protect human rights. Basic rights are central to the functioning of democracy and socio-economic progress of society. Independent courts sanitize the democratic space, facilitating the healthy clash of ideas that in turn engenders stability and growth.