Ndola clergy Fr. John Emmanuel Kapambwe of the Anglican Church has said Kenneth Kaunda Day should not just be a mere formality holiday but a moment for citizens to seriously learn from the iconic life of Zambia’s founding republic president.
28th April, 2022 has marked the inaugural KK’s Day which was declared by sixth republican President Edgar Chagwa Lungu last year.
KK as he was fondly called served as the first president of Zambia from 1964 to 1991 and was at the forefront of the struggle for independence from British rule.
He died last June at the age of 97.
In an interview, Fr. Kapambwe of Masala Anglican Church in Ndola said people can pick many lessons from the life of Dr. Kaunda ranging from the promotion of peace to being a good family man.
“Dr. Kenneth David Kaunda was a great and passionate advocate of humanism. This means that; his leadership prioritised upholding the dignity of humanity. To protect the values, needs, interests, and freedom of humanity was the vision of his leadership. His vision of humanism on the centre manifested in many life lessons we can learn from his life,” Fr. Kapambwe said.
“The following are the lessons we can learn from his life; the first lesson is Promoter of Love and Peace: Dr. Kaunda’s favourite Scripture was Mark 12:31 ’Love your neighbor as yourself.’ His leadership was based on love for humanity as the most important thing. This is the reason on many occasions he could quote the said Scripture. Dr.Kaunda was a firm believer of Christian values in his leadership and always promoted peace and love. It is important for every citizen to pursue peace. I call upon the Citizens to learn to express their grievances in a peaceful manner. He continued preaching and promoting peace even after leaving office. As we celebrate the life of Dr. Kaunda let us avoid incidents like recent riots by the core boys in the intercity bus station in Lusaka. This also applies to all university students who like protesting by destroying property and other acts of violence can emulate the attitude of Dr. Kaunda,” he said.
“The second lesson is Example of Servanthood Leadership: Leadership is all about willingness to serve others. This is what Dr Kaunda believed in. Dr Kaunda during his reign was able to ensure that people were served in a fair and acceptable manner. Leaders today and the people serving in public offices and many others can emulate the selfless service Dr. Kaunda portrayed. The third lesson is Example Integrity: The leadership of Dr. Kaunda was characterised by Integrity. Integrity is the aspect of doing things in an honest way. As a result of this, Dr. Kaunda believed in governing the affairs of the country in a transparent manner devoid of misdeeds such as criminal activities. Integrity is the aspect that is lacking in both Church and Circular leaders. We have to embrace an attitude of integrity like our founding father.”
“The fourth lesson is Unity: Dr. Kaunda was a firm believer in unity and very passionate about it. He was a unifying factor who brought all the 73 tribes together under the popular One Zambia One Nation motto. He denounced tribalism, hate speech and political violence among other vices. This was a good thing leaders and every Zambian can embrace especially in this time when we are struggling with issues of tribalism and tribal remarks by some leaders, like what we experienced during the previous campaigns of the tripartite elections,” Fr. Kapambwe continued.
“The fifth lesson is Freedom Promoter: Dr. Kaunda was not only concerned for the Freedom of Zambia but the Liberation of Africa as well: Dr. Kaunda assisted to liberate some countries within the continent of Africa. He played a very significant role towards attainment of independence by countries such as Zimbabwe, Angola, Namibia and Mozambique among others. Dr. Kaunda also accommodated people who fled from war-torn countries. These people had even an opportunity to pursue formal education in Zambia. For instance Mr. Emerson Munangagwa, the current President of Zimbabwe pursued all his education in Zambia and he later trained as a lawyer at the University of Zambia. Let us pursue freedom for every individual. As we celebrate this day I call upon all those involved in the abductions of the young ladies working in mobile booths to stop with immediate effect. As a nation let us all fight together against this vice posing a danger to the girl child as well as violation of the rights of movement and assembly,” he added.
Fr. Kapambwe concluded:”The sixth lesson is commitment to family:* Dr. Kaunda was a committed family man and faithful husband. This is the virtue that is lacking in many young people today. In this time when divorce and GBV cases are rampant we can learn from Dr. Kaunda who was able to faithfully uphold the sacrament of Holy Matrimony until death. This Kaunda’s Day Holiday must not just be a celebration for formality. Instead we have to take seriously the lessons that we learn from his life. And this great honour we can give to Dr. Kaunda as we celebrate his life and legacy. God bless Zambia.”
Thanks to the father of nation ecl for giving us opportunity to celebrate a great man
Who actually thought of him today Apart from his survivng relatives
Our economy in tatters
Luckily mosy people went to work
Surely how many holidays do you want Mr lazy Clergy man? And these are chaps who survive via tithes …easy money from the gullible. Why not make Prayer day KK day then..
The above f00l is not even based here in zambia, yet it is complaining about a Zambian holiday. Now he will reply and say he doesn’t respond to trolls Hahaha
“The geometry of a universe is very like the grammatical
structure of a sentence. Just as a sentence has no structure an
no existence apart from the relationships between the words,
space has no existence apart from the relationships that hold
between the things in the universe. If you change a sentence
by taking some words out, or changing their order, its
grammatical structure changes. Similarly, the geometry of
space changes when the things in the universe change their
relationships to one another.
As we understand it now, it is simply absurd to speak of a
universe with nothing in it. That is as absurd as a sentence
with no words. It is even absurd to speak of a space with only
one thing in it, for then there would be no relationships to
define where that one thing is…
Zambians are so forgetful, KK was a ruthless leader, what about the hundreds of secret police taking people away in the 60s, or 70’s. He created the Office of the President as a spy agency, he ruined the economy with his unworkable business plan, remember the huge Q’s for basics, He made the nation a one party state so he could control it. He was always asking China, Russia, US, EU, UK for aid. he started the no work ethic and too many holidays. Also many laws were put in place to control the people. (public order act, NRC, Not allowed to say negative things about the pres and Vice to name a few) He was no Mandela. time to remove this public holiday and a few other such as Prayer Day, Youth Day ,Heroes Day and Farmers Day. At the moment we have 16 public holidays highest number in the…
Continued
highest number in the world.
The only thing he did right was to allow free elections and when he lost he moved on even though he didn’t want to.