- Former Botswana president Ian Khama says his twin brothers have been detained by state security.
- He claims he has intelligence that the arrests were a directive from his successor, President Mokgweetsi Masisi.
- Khama spoke about his alleged persecution on Thursday.
Former Botswana president Ian Khama claims his successor, President Mokgweetsi Masisi, ordered the detention of his twin brothers, Tshekedi Khama and Anthony Khama, by state security.
According to Khama, Botswana's Directorate of Intelligence and Security (DIS) has his brothers in custody.
"Fellow-citizens, I have just received the news that my twin brothers, Tshekedi Khama and Anthony Khama, have been detained by the DIS and are being kept at the DIS offices in Sebele. I do not know why my brothers are being detained. I am further informed that the DIS is now going after Tshekedi Khama's wife," Khama said.
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Khama believed this was part of a grand scheme of going after him on false allegations.
"... this is a continuation of the harassment and persecution that my family is being subjected to since the fabrication of accusations made against me," he said.
"I have been informed by a source, from within the DIS itself, that this was done on specific orders from Mokgweetsi Masisi himself."
Khama made his first public appearance since fleeing Botswana at the late former Zambian president Rupiah Banda's state funeral on Thursday in Lusaka, Zambia.
At the funeral, Khama said: "Some politicians are not nice."
He added that he was being persecuted back home.
In his condolence message to the Banda family, Khama revealed that, while he was in exile, he had met Banda in Zambia in January this year.
In November last year, Anthony Khama, 63, was caught in the saga between his brother, Ian, and the DIS when his property, Kenmoir Farm, was searched on allegations of keeping 18 guns and rifles belonging to the latter.
Tshekedi Khama is a former cabinet minister, who served under his brother, Ian, and briefly under Masisi, when he was the Minister of Youth Empowerment, Sports and Culture Development.
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He broke ranks with the Botswana Democratic Party (BDP) founded by their father, Seretse Khama, the first president of Botswana, to join his brother, Ian, in the Botswana Patriotic Front (BPF).
He's one of the three elected MPs under BPF.
The Botswana government has not yet responded to a request for comment, and this will be added once received.
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