KAMBWILI HAD IT COMING

FINALLY, Chishimba Kambwili’s disputed tenure as Member of Parliament for Roan Constituency on the Patriotic Front ticket has ended. Mr Kambwili’s exit from the National Assembly follows a ruling yesterday by the Speaker, Dr Patrick Matibini that the Roan MP crossed the floor the moment he accepted a senior position in the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC). But did it have to take the Speaker to remove him from Parliament? Are these the kind of leaders Zambians want in control of the instruments of power” In our view, Mr Kambwili should have been principled enough to have vacated the seat. The only snag is being the political midget he is, he lacks morals to stand on. We think he is a bad example to upcoming politicians for there is nothing they can learn from him. He has failed the morality test on the Roan parliamentary seat and his failure to resign from the PF and has continued to waste the court’s time. The ruling over the Roan seat was prompted by a point of order by Malambo Member of Parliament Makebi Zulu. Mr Kambwili’s continued stay in the National Assembly has been mired in controversy ever since he was expelled from the ruling Patriotic Front. He created more drama when he was appointed as a consultant for the opposition National Democratic Congress by another former PF official, Mwenya Musenge. Mr Musenge was Copperbelt Minister until the 2016 Presidential and Parliamentary elections when lost the Chimwemwe parliamentary seat to an independent candidate. Mr Musenge was expelled at the same time as Mr Kambwili, but did not dispute his expulsion from the party. That was the genesis of the NDC. Mr Musenge announced the formation of the NDC, saying as its secretary-general, he was the biblical John the Baptist who had come to clear the way for the messiah. He named Mr Kambwili as consultant, a move that did not go well with the PF which called on him to vacate the parliamentary seat and pave way for a by-election. Mr Kambwili opted to continue procrastinating and vented his wrath on President Edgar Lungu, accusing him of running a corrupt government. He continued doing this in Parliament as the Roan MP, knowing full well that he was protected under the law. Where all peaceful persuasion had failed to make him vacate the Roan seat, it was his usual crude manner of tackling issues that eventually led to his dismissal in Parliament. The NDC consultant was captured on a video that went viral in which he was filmed shouting at an Indian Compactor driver on a road site that he had no right to be in Zambia, stealing jobs from Zambians. His NDC compatriot, Mr Musenge, in an effort at damage control tried to distance the party from his utterances, that they did not agree with his sentiments, and took the unexpected step of expelling him from the party. But Mr Kambwii reiterated by saying that Mr Musenge had no powers to fire him, saying there was no way a junior (Mr Museng) could fire his senior. In a nutshell, the NDC consultant retorted that “NDC was Kambwili and Kambwili was NDC.” He confirmed what everyone had all along expected, that he was the de facto leader of the NDC. And in his ruling, the Speaker relied on some of the utterances by Mr Kambwili where he confirmed his membership and also leadership of the NDC. “In the circumstances I find and hold that Chishimba Kambwili by virtue of being a member of the NDC has clearly crossed the floor,” Dr Matibini said. Ironically in Kitwe, NDC district and constituency officials at a media briefing yesterday had demanded that Mr Kambwili resign from the ruling PF and concentrate on running the opposition party. Even before the Speaker’s ruling in Parliament, observers had always questioned Mr Kambwili’s moral judgement by wanting to represent two opposing parties. In the end, Mr Kambwili created a problem not only for himself, but the NDC faithful who now started to question his commitment to their cause. Thankfully, the Speaker’s ruling should put to rest the political gymnastics of Mr Kambwili so that the nation could move on. He had it coming.