Seeking a new Judiciary for a New Democratic Zambia

Seeking a new Judiciary for a New Democratic Zambia

…Never ever did I feel that citizens have replaced respect for disdain, admiration for scorn, high regard for ridicule, for this group than now…

Amb. Emmanuel Mwamba wrote;

We have a people in the nation beginning to look to outsiders for help and salvation than to rely on its own internal mechanisms such as the Judiciary.The visit by the United Nations Human Rights Council Special Rapporteur, Irene Khan typifies and captures this scenario.

Today she met the “Per Incuriam” group! This was supposed to be a moment of celebrations for citizens who feel oppressed, whose rights have been violated, whose cry for an independent arbiter in their disputes and suffer oppression from abusers of human rights.

But it is a moment of silent outrage.

Sell-outs of Democracy.

I strongly think the whole group, like the Zambia Police Command, must go, for our country to be restored to the path of wellness.

Their conduct, especially the last two years, makes me believe that the next new Government must start a process where these are all made to re-apply alongside the recruitment of credible people to take some of their places.

It is unthinkable, that in my lifetime, that I would witness severe criticims of the Judiciary as happened now.

This treatment was an allotment spared for members of the Executive and Legislature and instiutions such as the Zambia Police and the Electoral Commission of Zambia where the rot occurs with contempt.

It was unthinkable that I would render a severe and critical opinion of the Judiciary.

But that is how far the rot in our country has gone, to the extent that we are at the precipice of losing our cherished Democracy as constitutional offices, such as this group, cow to fear and participate in executive schemes to undermine the rule of law and the lady Justice.

Therefore, it has now become a sacred imperative and duty that we must expose all the rot, including the violations perpetrated by the Executive that the Judiciary has actively participated in.

It is clear that the Judiciary has succumbed and has not been spared to the relentlessly decay that has infected the Executive and Legislature, in the last 60years and this rot has become septic.

In the life of our country, the Judiciary was expected to be guardians of Democracy, gate keepers of the Rule of Law, promoters of Justice, defenders of the Republican Constitution and a bulwark against tyrany and dictatorship.

But they have been active colluders and enablers of dictatorship denying even basic rights to citizens and the due process of the law such as the right to bail and bail pending appeal.

They have even created a special court, the Economic and Financial Crimes Court, a court that violate all principles of justice such as the right to due process, fairness and Justice, a court created for allegations of previous corruption only, and for targeted members of the former ruling party only.

None of their corrupt officials appear before this court.
We have witnessed this decay,year after year, government after government and now the depth of the fall of the Judiciary has reached rock bottom!

A new crop must take their place to ensure that Zambia doesn’t ever regress to the whims and caprices of dictatorship and tyranny and citizens must ensure that Zambia grows to become a thriving and flourishing Democracy as envisioned in 1964 and 1991.

A new crop must take their place so that Zambians should never look to foreigners and outsiders to resolve their own disputes and issues that arise, but must resort and have faith in their own internal mechanisms such as strong democratic institutions and an independent Judiciary.