Lubinda Demands Independent Inquest Into Kafwaya Death, Questions Treason Detention Delays Given Lubinda, the former Cabinet minister who acted as Patriotic Front president, has called for an independent inquest into the death of former Cabinet minister Mutotwe Kafwaya, saying…

Lubinda Demands Independent Inquest Into Kafwaya Death, Questions Treason Detention Delays

Given Lubinda, the former Cabinet minister who acted as Patriotic Front president, has called for an independent inquest into the death of former Cabinet minister Mutotwe Kafwaya, saying the state owes his family and the nation a full account of how he died during a security operation in Lusaka. In an interview, he also asked how long the state may hold treason suspects before presenting them to a court, and warned that the country is dividing into those who won the election and those who lost it.

Mr Lubinda said he would not comment on how the vote was run because he stood apart from the process. “It would be remiss of me to claim to have sufficient knowledge to judge the conduct of those elections,” he said. Asked why he stayed out of public view during the campaign, he said the answer would take an entire programme and should wait for another day.

His concern, he said, is what has happened since the 13 August vote, which has left the country looking split between winners and losers. “Elections, like I said in my statement, should not be a determinant of who is a citizen and who is not a citizen,” he said. Those given the mandate to govern, he added, must deal fairly with the people who voted against them. “You do not wish them out of the way. What you do is to embrace them and ensure that they feel that they still continue to enjoy the full rights of every citizen.”

Mr Lubinda listed the death of Mr Kafwaya, public talk of militias and insurgents, reports that detainees were denied lawyers, family and medical care, and talk of tribalism as signs the country is not heading that way. On Mr Kafwaya, he said word of the death first emerged on the 14th, when people heard of gunfire and that a life may have been lost. Confirmation took almost four days, and the state later disclosed that its security officers were involved.

The first real information, he said, came from the family, who found the body in a morgue at Maina Soko after the widow, the children and friends pleaded for answers. Nobody has stepped forward to say they placed it there. “It’s still a mystery,” he said. He also faulted remarks made after the death suggesting Mr Kafwaya brought it on himself. “You don’t say things like that after a citizen has died,” he said.

Mr Lubinda said he has no evidence of how Mr Kafwaya died and would not point a finger at anyone, but he said the silence leaves families to guess. He put himself in that position. “I shudder to imagine that this happened to me. That all of a sudden, I’m dead, and the state says we were at that place and there was a skirmish, but then the state does not explain the circumstances under which I died,” he said. “I expect a little bit more. As a citizen, I expect that even in my death, I shall be treated with some humanity.”

He was reminded that Secretary to the Cabinet Patrick Kangwa had spoken on the matter and described a clash involving gunfire. Mr Lubinda said that account leaves out what the public most wants to know: whether a state officer shot Mr Kafwaya, and what led security officers to the premises. “That I missed,” he said of both points. He noted that the law requires a post-mortem even where a person dies in a car crash, so that no mystery surrounds the death.

That, he said, is why he is asking for an independent inquest, which he sees as the best way out given how long government took to explain. “The state has a duty to protect my life. And if I was to lose this life under circumstances that my family and friends do not understand, the state must assist them to get to the bottom of it,” he said. “I’m afraid that at this point, citizens may not listen to government anymore.”

Mr Lubinda rejected suggestions that his statement was written in fear. Some people on Facebook, he said, predicted he could be arrested or airlifted for issuing it. “Shouldn’t I express my opinion as a citizen? Shouldn’t I ask questions to my government as a citizen? No, I don’t have such fear,” he said.

He then turned to those arrested after the election, including Brian Mundubile. Mr Lubinda said the nation was told by Mr Kangwa that the matter had been followed up for three years, which left him expecting strong evidence. “They were investigating this for three years, and now they have effected an arrest. So they must certainly have cogent evidence,” he said. Later, he said, the public heard that investigations were still going on, when suspects should have been presented before a judge within 48 hours as the Penal Code provides.

He was asked whether Zambians were being impatient, given how long some past treason cases took. Those cited included the case of Edward Jack Shamwana and 12 others, and the 2017 treason case against President Hakainde Hichilema, then in opposition. Mr Lubinda said those timelines measure how long trials ran, not how long suspects waited to be presented in court. “Jack Shamwana and friends were nabbed, taken into prison, quickly presented before a judge. And then the matter in court is the one that took three years, not investigations,” he said.

The real issue, he said, is the law and not patience. He asked whether the Constitution permits a citizen to be arrested and kept in detention for as long as the state takes to investigate, and he wants Director of Public Prosecutions Gilbert Phiri to answer for Zambians. “If it takes 10 years for them to be satisfied with the evidence, should we keep quiet and say this is alright?” he said.

Mr Lubinda said delay also damages the accused in the public eye, because a person who is arrested cannot speak until they appear before a judge. “The more you delay to present a person before a judge, the more it sinks in the public that that person is facing this criminal offence,” he said. An accused person who has not been told the charges cannot defend himself, he added, comparing it to being accused of theft without being told the day or the item.

On Archbishop Alick Banda, Mr Lubinda said he has been through the experience of being granted bail in the morning and then waiting while the arresting officer cannot be found. That made the Archbishop’s night in the Chimbokaila cells, and most of the next day, hard for him to accept. Dr Banda is not above the law, he said, but officers have the ability to judge a person’s standing and flight risk. “Where can Dr Alick Banda hide? Where in this world can Dr Alick Banda hide?” he said.

Asked which institutions need strengthening, Mr Lubinda said all of them, naming the executive, the legislature, the judiciary, the police, the anti-corruption and drug enforcement commissions, and the political parties. He said the opposition cannot yet be called strong, noting that every opposition is shaken after defeat, as the PF was in 2021. “I think the opposition is still finding its feet after the defeat. I’m sure that we will find our feet,” he said.

Asked what advice he would give Mr Hichilema for a second term, Mr Lubinda offered three points. The first is to pray and treat every Zambian as one of God’s creation. The second is to use the term to address what people complained about in the first, because “he is capable of ending his second term, leaving a legacy that he would be proud of.” The third is to govern for all Zambians in a way they can see.

Mr Lubinda said he would turn down a place in the President’s team, as he did when lobbied in the past. “If you think that I can add value to government, then I would rather use that value to strengthen the opposition,” he said. He said pressure on those in power is needed, citing the price of fuel and delays in paying farmers by the Food Reserve Agency. Asked whether he still wants to be president, he said he has never run from that ambition.

Mr Lubinda said he would return to explain his silence whenever he is invited again.