ZAMBIA IN JUDICIAL QUANDARY – HENRY KABINGA
ZAMBIA is currently in a judicial quandary and unless Chief Justice, Mumba Malila steps in to intervene, the constitutional and multi-party system of government shall surely be washed away, Henry Kabinga has said.
Mr Kabinga there was no question or doubt that the Legislature and the Electoral Commission of Zambia (ECZ) were captured institutions by the Executive and that the Judiciary had remained the last line of defence in seeking justice.
Mr Kabinga, the former UPND member of the national management committee said the illegal recognition of expelled Matero Member of Parliament Miles Sampa appointees in the National Assembly had left the Judiciary in a moral and legal test.
He said Speaker of the National Assembly Nelly Mutti had contemptuously recognised Mr Sampa’s appointees and proceeded to effect changes in the House even before changes at the Registrar of Societies had been made.
Mr Kabinga said the disgraceful behaviour of the ECZ during the Kabushi asnd Kwacha by-elections had left the integrity of the commission in taters and that the Judiciary was therefore the last hope and should never be plunge itself into the judicial cesspool.
“One only needs to refer to the illegal recognition of the Miles Sampa appointees in the National Assembly even before changes at the Registrar of Societies had been made. The disgraceful behaviour of the ECZ in barring Joe Malanji and Bowman Lusambo from contesting the Kwacha and Kabushi constituency by-elections against a decision of Court should make us realise just to what extent the rot in our governance system in Zambia has reached,” Mr Kabinga said.
We are in the sewers and if the Judiciary does not step up to its role as the last bastion of defence for our democracy, constitutionalism and multi-party system of government that we so much fought for and won in 1991, the prophecy of Zambia sliding into a banana republic will be fulfilled with all the catastrophic consequences,” he said.
Mr Kabinga said because of the importance that the Miles Sampa saga had in relation to Constitutionalism, democracy and the rule of law, it was important for all focus was trained on a single matter that would ultimately test the Judiciary.
He said it had become clear that the Executive had taken over all institutions of State including the Legislature and that the Judiciary had remained the last line of defence for the country’s democracy, Constitutionalism and rule of law. He said with the PF deciding to deal with one case that would resolve all other cases in the courts, the Judiciary was firmly on trial and how it adjudicated the case would determine whether Zambia was just one step away from descending into a banana republic.