IRATE Kafulafuta residents on Saturday booed and insulted their member of parliament Joseph Kabamba forcing him to abandon his speech at a funeral in chief Chiwala’s area.
But Kabamba said “it was just some cousinship at play” during the funeral by some drunk young boys.
This all happened at a funeral for a PF branch chairman Zelani Kazembe on Saturday.
When the MP arrived, immediately people saw him, they picked up stones, heckled and insulted him.
He was forced to curtail his speech midstream and escorted away by two party cadres before official the end of programme.
“The man was accused of not coming to the constituency from the time he was voted as MP. The roads are bad and it was his first time to appear at a funeral. He is not popular here and not wanted by the people,” a source said.
But Kabamba when contacted said he was not chased out of the funeral.
He explained that it was just a few drunk boys who wanted to cause confusion because of being drunk.
“I went to attend the funeral for our branch member. Our colleague who died was a Muslim. It was just some cousinship. Now these young boys who had powder, even the Muslims found it very difficult to contain the situation. Even when I was called to speak, the boys where making noise. I can just say some young boys who were drunk,” Kabamba explained.
“These boys did not give respect to the funeral procession. Adults were even very disappointed with the behaviour of the young people. A lot of people are so disappointed with the boys. So it is not true that I was chased, no!”
He said the problem of beer drinking needs a collective approach.
“This is a collective situation which needs everyone. It is not only the MP, chief, but all the stakeholders to come up with an approach to ensure that whenever, we gather, we discourage the abuse of beer drinking. We need to ensure that we find a way to teach the young people to stop beer,” said Kabamba. “So right now as we talk I am going to Church, where I was invited and I will talk about the dangers of beer drinking and encourage the Church to do the same.”