HH IS THE INITIATOR

Dear Editor. n the Daily Nation Edition of Saturday, 20 April, 2024, it was reported that the Barotse Nationalist Youth Alliance (BNYA) Spokesperson Munyinda Munukayumbwa was attacked and beaten by the UPND thugs led by the party’s National Youth chairman Gilbert Liswaniso. And rightly so, the BNYA has called for the arrest of Gilbert Liswaniso.

However, it is not only Liswaniso who should be arrested since there are three parties to a criminal act; the initiator, the perpetrator and the accomplice. All the three are guilty of the criminal act in question. Munyinda was attacked for defending the position of the Barotse Royal Establishment (BRE) that President Hakainde was not invited to this year’s Kuomboka ceremony and therefore should have stayed away. Shockingly, President Hakainde defied all odds and forced himself on the Kuomboka ceremony.

If President Hakainde had heeded the BRE pronouncements not to go for the Kuomboka ceremony, a

Irift between the BNYA and UPND youths would not have occurred. It follows therefore, that Liswaniso and his fellow youths who attacked Munyinda are perpetrators, those who helped transport these youths to the scene of the crime are accomplices and President Hakainde is the initiator of this violence. Both the perpetrators and the accomplices should be arrested now while President Hakainde’s arrest should wait until he leaves office in 2026 so that when Article 98 (9) of the constitution is invoked, he should face the law.

It is laughable that some shameless praise singers are misleading themselves and President Hakainde that Hichilema’s attendance of this year’s Kuomboka was a mark of humility and meant to unite the nation. If indeed that was the motive, why didn’t President Hakainde attend the Kusefya pa Ngwena as a private citizen? How can private citizen Hakainde unite the nation when as President he has failed lamentably to do so? Under his watch, there are over 400 civil servants who have been surrendered to PSMD on account of their ethnicity (they hail from Luapula, Northern, Muchinga and Eastern provinces) and party affiliation.

Praise singers can only manage to mislead President Hakainde and themselves, what is at play here is that the UPND and President Hichilema believe that they are entitled to the political support of Western province, that Western province is mandated to whether they like it not to vote for UPND. So President Hichilema’s insistency to attend this year’s Kuomboka ceremony was out of fear that the UPND’s grip on Western Province was slipping away and that his presence might help hold the grip but did it hold? It is clear President Hakainde went to Mongu for a political show down with the Litunga, he is not happy with the cordial relationship that the two Paramount Chiefs have established to unite the tribes of Zambia and the subsequent announcement of the Lozi-Bemba tribal cousinship; President Hakainde wants to continue to exploit the tribal divisions for his political fortunes.

We call upon the Medical Association of Zambia to start taking a keen interest in the behaviour of President Hakainde, it is not normal that a President can go to a function where he has not been invited and State Counsel Sakwiba Sikota has performed his patriotic duty by tabulating the 12 grand lies of President Hakainde, it is also not normal that our President can start telling lies even on straight forward things. He has told the nation that the new investors in Mopani are creditors while evidence at PACRA shows that the mine has been sold!

The BRE Kuta should also take a keen interest in the violence that Liswaniso unleashed on the BNYA because the members were attacked defending the position of the BRE. The BRE Kuta should also take note of the Lozi politicians that accompanied President to this year’s Kuomboka ceremony, a function to which the BRE made it very clear that the President was not invited, by accompanying President Hichilema, these Lozi politicians have declared publicly that their loyalty is to the President and not the Litunga.