POLITICISING HEALTH

THE unfolding drama about the failed evacuation of Mr Chishimba Kambwili for medical treatment abroad is as bizarre and surreal as that involving Miles Sampa and the Patriotic Front.

It is ironic that the narrative has now descended into absurdity and is being sustained by the executive wing of government.

It is public knowledge that Mr Kambwili was promised on January 15 that he would be evacuated to receive medical treatment outside the country due to his failing health.

But for reasons best known by the powers-that-be, the evacuation plans had been quietly shelved.

The official narrative being fed to the public is that Mr Kambwili, who used his own initiative to save his life by travelling to South Africa by road, is now a fugitive.

Government could have sent him to South Africa but it did not.

It does not make sense.

This is because the government was well aware of his health status even before he was sentenced to a prison term in Kasama.

That is the more reason it volunteered to have him evacuated abroad. In any case, that is what is expected from the government when any citizen needs specialist treatment abroad.

To add to the drama, Mr Kambwili yesterday broke his silence and narrated how the State attempted to blackmail him to demonise, disparage and scandalise former President Edgar Lungu and recognise expelled Matero Member of Parliament Miles Sampa in exchange for the medical evacuation.

According to Mr Brebnar Changala, a civil rights and political activist who spoke to him, Mr Kambwili said:

“After I left prison, I was not well. But I was approached by the State and was given an offer to be evacuated on condition that I:

(I) Scandalise, humiliate, demonise and disparage former President Lungu,

(II) Recognise and validate expelled Matero Member of Parliament Miles Sampa as president of the Patriotic Front,

(III) Demand that John Sangwa SC should remove him from the case in which nine PF presidential candidates have sued Mr Sampa.”

Mr Kambwili has narrated to Mr Changala that he was being presented by the system as an escapee and fugitive because he rejected to be blackmailed to turn against former President Lungu, validate Mr Sampa as PF president as conditions for his medical evacuation to South Africa.

According to Mr Changala, Mr Kambwili was asked to record a voice note in which he was to denounce former President Lungu, recognise Mr Sampa as PF president and be removed from a case in which nine PF president candidates had sued Mr Sampa.

Said Mr Changala; “Mr Kambwili was asked to record a voice note in which he was to denounce former President Lungu, recognise Mr Sampa as PF president and be removed from a case in which nine PF president candidates had sued Mr Sampa.

According to Mr Kambwili, after he had recorded the voice note that went viral on Saturday, it was rejected because it did not have the three conditions which were prescribed.

It is our hope that what Mr Kambwili has disclosed does not reflect the unfolding culture of the executive stooping to such unacceptable levels of governance through deceit and lies.

It is unacceptable and morally incorrect to prescribe conditions under which a person could be evacuated. It is not right that Mr Kambwili’s illness should be politicised – for this is what it shows.

How else could Zambians describe this political decadence taking root? It must be stopped.