CONSTITUTION HAUNTING PF – NKANDU
By Darious Kapembwa in Kitwe
UPND campaign manager for the September 25 by-election Elvis Nkandu says Joseph Malanji and Bowman Lusambo have disqualified themselves from the election because they enacted the Constitution without reading it.
And Nkandu who is Kaputa UPND member of parliament and Youth, Sport and Arts minister said former president Edgar Lungu disregarded the sacredness of the Constitution when he declared that he would sign it with his eyes closed.
He said several distinguished personalities like Brigadier General Godfrey Miyanda cautioned Lungu against such but he ignored.
“I am very happy that the Constitution they enacted is haunting them. I am very happy. In fact I will be very happy if it continues haunting them until they die so that they begin to take reading in parliament seriously,” he said. “The law for the grade 12 certificate was voted for by Malanji, it was voted for and enacted by him and the PF, it’s not the UPND so how can it become our problem? I remember when Edgar Lungu was displaying the Constitution at Heroes stadium, ‘can I sign this’? And they were shouting, ‘yes, yes, yes’! So, they caused this by-election by voting for that Constitution. The UPND has not made any law, we are just one year in government; we have not created any law. If someone is barred by the laws they created, how can they cry foul? That’s why I am very happy that they are being haunted by the law they created. That article 72 (4) was sneaked into the Constitution by them, it is law that was enacted by themselves.”
He charged that there was too much neglect of public infrastructure in Kwacha constituency especially water installations in Kwacha ward which had a lot of leakages which he said Malanji should have attended to rather than giving hand-outs.
“You see, there are a lot of challenges in Kwacha which the former member of parliament should have addressed. And the people of Kwacha are clever, they know that those hand-outs have a short lifespan that’s why we are telling them about opportunities that exist in the expanded CDF allocation,” Nkandu said.
Nkandu, one of the best grassroots mobilisers, allayed assertions that the UPND were afraid of losing to Malanji hence subjecting him to legal battles.
Nkandu said the former ruling party members were rejected way back and have just been hanging on since 2015.
“Afraid of what? Fear who? To me PF was rejected in 2015 and had been hanging on power all along until a popular revolt tossed them out in 2021. And President Hichilema and the new dawn are correcting the many wrongs. In fact the people will now know the extent of their theft, the extent of their damage to the economy. We can’t fear people that stole people’s money. And the people know that we are addressing those issues. The PF has no muscle to win any political battles on the grassroots,” he said further. “He (Malanji) insulted voters by saying politics is not for paupers, but he is asking the same paupers to vote for him. This is typical of PF and the same money they are being given is theirs. Again, I am happy that the money is now reaching them, the money they stole is now getting to them.”
Nkandu said the ruling party has shown the people that it will do more for them based on what government has achieved in the last one year in areas of employment creation, respect for human rights and the exercise of fundamental freedoms.