A leader of an opposition political grouping calling itself Christian Democratic Party recently asked a magistrate to recuse herself from hearing a matter in which he is charged with sedition because she hails from Southern Province. His argument is that since the charge in question relates to his criticism of the UPND government appointing people from one region, which happens to be where the presiding magistrate hails from, he doubts he can get a fair trial. While on the surface, this application might have seemed justifiable to some people, it ignored one key component of reasoning which opened a Pandora’s box. Delivering ruling on the matter last Friday, Magistrate Sylvia Munyinya wondered how Pule, who’s being represented by Sakwiba Sikota...

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