As the US Vice President Kamala Harris made her grand entrance into Lusaka, the city’s residents were left awestruck by the impressive display of motorcades and security detail. Prominent lawyer Sakwiba Sikota couldn’t help but draw parallels between her visit and the grandeur last witnessed in Zambia during Haile Selassie’s state visit in 1965. Lusaka residents were excited to host the US Vice President, especially considering that she once lived there as a child. Harris’s charisma and genuine interest in the people left a lasting impression on those who were privileged to meet her.
However, as Kamala Harris ventured out to Chisamba, the locals were struck by something entirely different, and equally impressive.
The dirt roads that were once in a state of disrepair were magically transformed within a short period. The six-kilometer stretch from Mungule turnoff to Panuka farm was previously in a pathetic state, leaving locals to endure a bumpy ride. But, thanks to a partnership between the US Embassy and the Zambia National Service (ZNS), the road was resurfaced and the last kilometer was transformed from a mere path into a beautiful, smooth gravel road.
Although the locals weren’t invited to visit the Panuka farm during Kamala Harris’s visit, they can now enjoy the benefits of the newly refurbished roads. And perhaps, as they travel along these once-ruined paths, they can’t help but feel a sense of pride knowing that their community has caught the eye of some of the world’s most powerful leaders.
That road is being graded without laterite, that is a recipe for poor feeder road works. Already you can see wheel tracks which over time will become gulleys in the road. What happened to good road construction works? It ceased in 1991 when UNIP left. Ever since then if you find a good road works engineer it is by chancing as was the case with Phoenix.
Iam afraid “the benefits of the newly refurbished roads”will last two downpours and it will all go back to “normal”. I grew up in Mpongwe where our road was visited by graders and dumptrucks when KK or Grey Zulu was campaigning so I know the lifespan of these roads
As a citizen of Lumezi I loudly state that areas of this district are never visited by cars of any kind from the beginning of the rain season to May. In independent Zambia, we have no roads and even in 40 years we have never seen what those in Chisamba are seeing namely graders and trucks maintaining roads! We are forgotten because kamillar Harris from the US has never heard about us. We pray that Joe Biden will visit Lumezi or Malambo one day so that a road be constructed on his tour