POWER LIES WITH THE PEOPLE - KALABA

…says unless the UPND and President Hichilema elected themselves, they can continue teasing Zambians, the owners of power that they will not go anywhere

THE UPND should know that power lies with the people and it is not about the ruling party to decide for how long it is going to rule the country and should therefore begin preparing for its exit, Harry Kalaba has said.

Mr Kalaba, the president of the Citizens First (CF) says President Hichilema should not be arrogant by telling Zambians that he will not allow them to remove him from the presidency because the people he is chiding are the same that gave him the mandate he is abusing.

Mr Kalaba said Mr Hichilema was not the first to be President of Zambia and that was why he was seventh and that Zambians had only privileged him to lead the country and should therefore stop teasing them that they would not remove him.

While commissioning the UPND headquarters on Thursday, President Hichilema said he was not going anywhere and that he was not going to allow himself to be defeated by the United Kwacha Alliance (UKA) as he was ready to meet them on the ground.

But Mr Kalaba, who is also a member of UKA said unless Mr Hichilema had elected himself, only then would he reserve the power to refuse to be defeated but should know that Zambians had already made up their minds to remove him because of the untold miseries and suffering he had subjected citizens to.

“Unless President Hichilema elected himself, he can continue teasing and boasting that he is not going anywhere… that he will not allow himself to be defeated. But if it is the Zambians who put him there, let him know that he is leaving. President Hichilema will know where he will go in 2026. In case he has forgotten, let him know that power lies with the people and the same people who put him where he is will remove him and it is our expectation that he will not resist when the Zambians say zwaaaa,” Mr Kalaba said.

Mr Kalaba said Zambians will show Mr Hichilema that he was not the mighty he had started thinking he was and that it was important that he should start preparing himself for the exit because there shall be no second term form him.

He said Zambians had become so disenchanted with the UPND government that if there were early elections, Mr Hichilema would lose with the same landslide he got in the 2021 general elections.

Mr Kalaba said democratic space had continued to shrink under the UPND and that citizens were being arrested and detained without being charged while those who had been slapped with trumped up cases were not being taken to the courts of law.

“I was arrested in Kalulushi for eating nshima at the residence of our national chairlady and the records are there. So, what increased democratic space is Mr Hichilema talking about. Anyway, it is not surprising because 99.9 percent of what President Hichilema says is not true. We know his character and Zambians know him for what he is and they will not be deceived again,” Mr Kalaba said.