United Kwacha Alliance; convocation of desperate, fatigued and hypocritical individuals

We may not always agree with the kind of Sean Tembo’s politics as we find them unreasonably canterkerous, absolutely raw and extremely vile, to say the least! However, at a time when ‘owners’ of certain political parties are flexing their muscles and peacocketing around deluxe hotels in Lusaka pontificating about this and that, and trying their level best to convince an otherwise nonchalant population why the New Dawn Administration must be ejected from power even before their 5 year mandate expires, Tembo slithers into the room and punctures deep holes into their fantastic political project.

African politicians never cease to amaze some of us…….at times they can say or do certain things, and later make 360 degrees about-turns devoid of any iota of shame! As they say in Bemba, “Insoni ebuntu,” loosely translated: a shadow of shame hinders us from saying or doing certain things in a particular style. What happened to truth and honesty in politics of today?

May we hasten to digress and try to dissect and analyse a few issues Sean Tembo raised in one of his recent articles ….. relevant to the topic at hand, of course.

We are made to understand members of UKA have congregated under this ‘unholy alliance’ by virtue of their positions as leaders of their various political parties even some of them may have a handful or zero followers apart from their family or friends. Now here’s a bummer; which political establishment is ba Lungu representing? Immediately after being walloped by one Hakainde Hichilema in the scintillating August 2021 general elections, ba Lungu wrote Cabinet office in his own beautiful handwriting informing them of his decision to retire from active politics. As others were dawdling to call for a party convention to fill up vacant positions including that of president; Matero Member of Parliament, Miles Sampa, swiftly moved in and organised one wherein he was overwhelmingly ushered in as new leader of the former ruling party.

It doesn’t matter how Sampa ascended to his current position; PF has been there before. As a matter of fact, the former ruling party has a long history of confusion when it comes to party conventions; ba Lungu himself claimed the coveted position and went on to contest the general elections via a mere show of hands at their sham convention held in Kabwe where serious contenders such as Sampa were eliminated from the race Mafiaso style by unleashing unruly and violent cadres on them!

Moreover, the former ruling party doesn’t have membership cards to demonstrate so and so is a bonafide member of the party; anyone can just wake up from the blues and claim to be a member! Until the courts decide otherwise, for now, Sampa remains president of Ichipani. As Tembo predicts, the matter may keep dragging on in court all the way into 2026.

Tembo further submits that ba Lungu had seven years to run the affairs of this nation, and did what he could given the circumstances. He, however, insists that apart from PF fanatics, there may not be any sane citizen that can easily be convinced that ba Lungu is coming back to achieve anything spectacular which he lamentably failed to achieve during his tenure. Couldn’t this former lawyer who’s credited as having presided upon the most brutal and corrupt regime, as many have observed, be motivated by sheer desire to come and inflict pain and revenge on his nemesis if he miraculously happens to claim victory in the 2026 polls?

The other important aspect Tembo alludes to about UKA in its current form is the inherent hypocrisy! We totally concur with him. Without beating about the bush, Harry Kalaba resigned from ba Lungu’s cabinet citing high levels of corruption in government. Lucky Mulusa who has just been annointed as Secretary General of UKA equally laughed off government’s decision to spend colossal sums of money on fire tenders which he lampooned as wheelbarrows. Ba Lungu didn’t hesitate to give him marching orders. It would be quite interesting to learn from these two astute individuals what has really changed since then.

As Tembo rightfully observes, some of the alliance partners that have been vociferous in condemning and critising the New Dawn Administration for the Cyber Security and Cyber Crimes Act are either ignorantly or arrogantly doing so ignoring that the very person they are now in cahoots with is the same person that signed the ‘monstrous’ bill into law! What principles are there to speak about?

If we may add further thoughts to the discourse, Kalaba’s own political party – Citizens first, has been accumulating massive zeros, or indeed whitewashed, in every by-elections they’ve participated in. How many wards or parliamentary seats does the party have to its name? Can Kalaba therefore inform the nation whether his his party is growing exponentially or it is a case of BID?

And when did we last see Sakwiba Sikota SC and his United Liberal Party on the ballot papers or indeed discarding his court room attire traveling the lengths and breadth of this nation vigorously campaigning for his political party candidates in various by-elections? Now that he’s developed grey hair, isn’t he better off relaxing at his farm writing memoirs or skipping from court to court doing what he’s good at….. arguing cases in court or showing University students the ropes?

As for ba mayo ba Edith Nawakwi, we may just encourage her to keep on making those mouth watering sausages or perhaps increase the capacity! We are missing Legana in most of our chain stores. You’ve had your time mama; we don’t think you still have the stamina to run around organising your party – Forum for Development and Democracy which is slowly dying a natural death. Can you show us evidence of your political party’s presence in every corner of the country?

Others such as Saboi Imboela and her National Democratic Congress may once in a while try to contest by-elections here and there even if they know deep down their hearts they’ve slim chances of turning the tables. What of the likes of Jackson Silavwe’s Golden party or indeed ba Chishala Kateka’s New Heritage party. What do they bring to the table, honestly? Apart from Lusaka, where else do they have members? When did they last put up a good showing in an election?

This probably explains why calculating and shrewd politicians such as Fred M’membe and his Socialist party, the fastest growing opposition political party at the moment, refuses to get into a marriage of convenience with UKA. He probably understands there may be a few desperate or finished politicians eager to ride on the backs of others so they could come and enjoy the trappings of power.

Until next time……

Prince Bill M. Kaping’a
Political/Social Analyst