A BROKE MUNIR LOST FRIENDS: Inside Munir Zulu’s journey to Parliament

A BROKE MUNIR LOST FRIENDS

_ Inside Munir Zulu’s journey to Parliament_ by Jeff Mbewe

At one point, Munir Zulu became broke, bankrupt. Very broke. His friends who had been parasitic on his fortunes became hostile towards him, running away and avoiding him at all cost. But in no time, he was back. All those who ran away from him came back. He never chased them. He never despised them. And he took them in unconditionally.

He paid for their rentals. He continued to help them with their problems.

The first day I met Munir Zulu was towards the end of 2020. My close, reliable, and trusted associate Richard M. Phiri introduced me to him.I was given a media assignment , and, together with a colleague Enock Mwanza (Mossad), we executed in hours. Before the day ended, results began to show, and that marked the beginning of my relationship with Munir Zulu.

A few weeks later, Munir told me he was going to stand as a member of Parliament in Lumezi Constituency.By this time, the MP was Philila Jere. She was independent but had worked closely with PF . She built networks and connections, which would later guarantee her adoption.

For Munir, there was somewhat heavy media propaganda heaped on him by various people. Although he was on social media (Facebook specifically), he was mostly inactive and did not bother much about the things said and written about him. I was an unofficial media strategist of a man who was to become an MP against all odds.

We needed to get Munir active on Facebook.We needed him to use this available platform to determine his own narratives and be able to tell his own stories. This was largely premised on Chinua Achebe’s saying, “Until the lion learns how to write, every story will glorify the hunter.”

So, we set up a day, and we decided we would need to take pictures of him to use as his profile picture and for a cover page.

I spent a few days interviewing Munir, albeit through pre-typed questions and sent via WhatsApp. I needed to understand his personality in order for me to know how to shape his official Facebook page and content.

Munir is generous, with a revolutionary mindset, and he has lived for others, more than for himself.Other than depending on his own confessions, I depended on independent research, undertaken by Enock Terminal Gnu . We needed to understand the personality of the Honorable in the making.

Enock discovered very interesting things through OSINT (Open Source Intelligence). By the way, Enock is a genius computer scientist specializing in Intelligence gathering. I needed him to gather intelligence on Munir for me. I needed to know the persona of the Honorable to be.

During campaigns, Munir Zulu’s life was so in danger that, he disguised his movements and sleeping arrangements. He was never in his official vehicle whenever we traveled. He was in the ‘advance party’ vehicle and most of the times, I traveled in the same vehicle as him as his Digital Media Strategist. Again, he slept in the cheapest room at any lodge or hotel, but paid for the most expensive ones so his wouldbe attackers or assassins would always never find him. We did all this because we picked up reliable information from multiple credible intelligence persons that suggested Munir’s life was at stake because there were people who wanted to ensure he wasn’t on the ballot in 2021. We did not rule out poisoning. We didn’t know the best way to protect Munir. We lived each day as it came. Most terrifying moments.

To be continued in part 2.