BRIAN MUNDUBILE AIRPORT INTERROGATION – BE CAREFUL HOW YOU HANDLE THIS MAN
By Kellys Kaunda
Once an overzealous female police officer in one district in Eastern Province warned Hakainde Hichilema not to step into her area saying, “tizamuvuvula” meaning “we ‘ll sort him out”.
At the time, Hichilema was an opposition leader and I was doing news analysis on HotFm Red Hot Breakfastshow.
Commenting on this story, I advised police officers to be careful how they handled Hichilema because he was going to end up their Commander-in-chief.
I advised the police to stay away from politics and remain impartial.
Furthermore, I argued that being a leading opposition leader, he was the likely successor to Edgar Lungu.
Later that day immediately after the program I accompanied a friend at Police HQ on an unrelated matter. We had just walked into Dr. Solomon Jere’s office when a senior investigations officer walked in and reminded Dr. Jere of what I had just said on radio.
Addressing Dr. Jere who at the time was Deputy Inspector General of Police, he said, “his advice was quite good. That female officer was definitely offline with her remarks”.
In another encounter, I was at Community House when Hichilema directed a question at me, “why do they arrest me even when I just go to the market and greet people and yet other opposition leaders do not get similar treatment?”
My swift answer was, “because the system has identified you as the real threat to power, so, they ll harass you”.
History repeats itself in this country very often. The same things happen so often, it’s like a movie you have seen over and over again.
The Zambia police have been the main actors with political authorities as the directors.
They have been doing this movie over and over again. The only faces that change are the victims – yesterday it was Hichilema, today, it’s Mundubile.
And it’s not small things they do. When you hear some of the things these officers (I don’t even know why some of them are called officers), did in Hichilema’s home when they went to arrest him, your heart will sink in shock and shame. It was so disgusting, you want to throw up.
Tragically, they never learn and they get away with ‘murder’ because no one is personally held to account.
One day, a commission of inquiry must be held in that particular incident so the public get to know the conduct of some police officers against opposition leaders.
Against this backdrop, my very strong advice to the police command is that be careful how you handle Mundubile.
He is just human and those suffering with him today are equally mere mortals. And most importantly, they are sinners like all of us.
When they rise to positions of power, they may not treat you kindly because forgiveness is one of the hardest commodities to acquire, let alone dispense.
And to those of you in political positions be careful, too, because the same treatment will be your portion when (note that am not saying ‘if’) you are no longer in charge.
In this life, how you treat others when you are in a position of privilege is how you are treated when tables turn.
Be the change you need to be so that when you are on the other side of power, you lie in the bed you made for others.
Individuals such as Mundubila should never be permitted to hold positions of power.These individuals have been involved in the misappropriation of Eurobond funds.Their businesses thrived on government contracts, plundering the national treasury.We are familiar with his background.
He may deceive a handful of naive individuals.However, he is incapable of effectively governing Zambia.They are merely striving to enrich themselves and embezzle from the government.Zambians must not err in allowing this individual near position of authority; he is a significant thief.