FROM PARTY WALLFLOWER TO PARLIAMENTARY PILLAR – THEN A BITTER TURN: THE RISE, DEBT, AND DEFIANCE OF GARRY NKOMBO.

FROM PARTY WALLFLOWER TO PARLIAMENTARY PILLAR – THEN A BITTER TURN: THE RISE, DEBT, AND DEFIANCE OF GARRY NKOMBO.

By Chilufya Kasonde

For over two decades, Mazabuka Central has been synonymous with one man: Garry Nkombo. Yet, few recall that the veteran politician now turning his back on his own party was once a double electoral flop on two different tickets.

Before his maiden parliamentary victory in 2006, Mr. Nkombo’s political beginnings were marked by rejection at the hands of the very voters who would later embrace him. In 1998, then a Lusaka-based businessman, he contested the Mazabuka parliamentary seat under the banner of the ruling Movement for Multiparty Democracy. He lost. Undeterred, Nkombo switched political vehicles and in 2001 stood under the Forum for Democracy and Development (FDD). History repeated itself, and his second attempt ended in another humiliating defeat.

At the time, Zambian politics was in flux. But the hard truth is that under two different parties, including the then-powerful MMD, Nkombo could not convince his own people to trust him.

The Turning Point

With two bruising losses behind him, the year 2002 proved pivotal. Nkombo switched allegiance once more, joining the United Party for National Development. In 2006, the UPND banner finally delivered what MMD and FDD could not: a parliamentary seat. Nkombo convincingly won Mazabuka Central, a seat he held ever since. Over subsequent elections in 2011, 2016, and 2021, he retained the constituency, rising through the ranks to become National Chairperson for Elections and later Party Whip in Parliament.

A Debt of Gratitude – Now Trampled

Mr. Nkombo’s story was once a powerful testament to the importance of political platforms. It is the UPND that identified his potential and gave him not just one, but four successive chances to serve the people of Mazabuka. The party’s adoption of Nkombo for four consecutive election cycles was a rare act of political loyalty and faith, providing him the institutional backing to transform from a rejected nobody into one of Parliament’s most enduring figures.

For 20 years, the UPND kept him in Parliament. Twenty years. But gratitude, it seems, has an expiration date.

In a stunning act of political ingratitude, Garry Nkombo has now turned against the very party that believed in him when no one else would. Having declared his intention to contest the Mazabuka parliamentary seat as an Independent candidate, Nkombo will now compete directly against the UPND, the party that rescued his political corpse from the wilderness, adopted him four times, and gave him two decades of relevance.
He is no longer a son of the house. He has become a rival to the hand that fed him.

The Unforgivable Irony

Let the record be clear: without UPND, Garry Nkombo would likely be a footnote in Zambian politics, remembered, if at all, as a two-time loser who could never break through. Instead, he was nurtured, defended, and elevated. And his response? To stand against his own political family.

Voters of Mazabuka must now decide. Do they reward a man who bites the hand that lifted him? Or do they see this independent run for what it really is, the ultimate betrayal of a party that gave a perennial failure his only real chance at power?

The political giant of yesterday has become a cautionary tale for tomorrow. And the UPND, which once celebrated its adopted son, must now watch him walk onto the battlefield as an enemy.

Mazabuka will not forget. And neither should the Nation.

Ilelanga News. June 07, 2026.