Iris Kaingu deserves human dignity not public rebuke
By Professor Namukolo Miyanda, Pan-Africanist and Governance Expert
31st July, 2026
President Hakainde Hichilema’s recent outburst against Iris Kaingu was unfair and untimely. It was a public rebuke laced with hypocrisy, and Zambians deserve to call it what it is. Ms. Kaingu is a young lady from Mwandi Constituency, who is humble and hardworking, and deserves to enjoy human dignity like any other person on planet earth.
To label Ms. Kaingu as “greedy” for exercising her constitutional right to seek adoption and, when that failed, to contest as an independent candidate is both harsh and unfair. Since when did ambition become a crime in the UPND? Since when did the Constitution stop applying the moment a former member dares to walk her own path?
Let us be candid. The act Ms. Kaingu is being crucified for is not new. It is not rare. It is politics.
Mulenga Kampamba did it. Sunday Chanda did it. Both walked into UPND and went straight for adoption on the party ticket. In fact, they did not even climb through the grassroots structures that Ms. Kaingu served for years. They were welcomed, adopted, and paraded as the new face of the party. No one called them greedy. No one summoned them to State House for a lecture. They were celebrated.
The pattern is wider than two names. UPND has demonstrated monopolistic tendencies fueled by discrimination because it applies different rules to different candidates.
In Kalulushi and Kanchibiya constituencies, there are old time and loyal party members who dreamed that one day they would be fortunate to represent their own party as parliamentary representatives. Those dreams were shuttered by the unfair application of rules that favoured new defectors from the opposition Patriotic Front. Loyalty was dismissed. Long service was ignored. And newcomers with PF tags were fast-tracked.
Therefore the argument that Iris Kaingu is being greedy for wanting to be adopted on the UPND ticket fails the test. It is not logical by any standard. You cannot punish a loyalist for demanding what you freely gave to a defector.
The truth UPND, including the President, does not want to admit is that the party’s adoption process was flawed. It lacked transparency, sidelined loyal cadres, and rewarded proximity over service. That flawed process is exactly why today we have so many candidates standing as independents, most of them coming from UPND itself. You cannot break your own house and then blame those who walk out of it.
And Ms. Kaingu is not walking out empty-handed. She is likely to benefit from two things the establishment underestimated: the strength of Zambia’s youthful population, and the evolution of social media as a tool for direct communication. Young voters are tired of gatekeeping. They are online, they are engaged, and they reward authenticity over endorsements. Social media now allows candidates to bypass party machinery and speak directly to grassroots communities. That is precisely the terrain where Ms. Kaingu has an advantage.
The President went harder on Ms. Kaingu than he has on corruption, on the rising cost of living, on the broken promises to the youth. That tells you everything. This was not about party discipline. This was about sending a message: step out of line, and you will be publicly shamed.
But democracy does not work that way. The Constitution guarantees every Zambian the right to associate, to contest, and to be adopted or to stand independently. Ms. Kaingu did exactly that. She first sought adoption within her former party, UPND. When the doors were closed, she exercised her democratic right as an independent. That is not greed. That is courage.
You cannot preach democracy in public and practice punishment in private. You cannot welcome defectors with open arms one day, and then crucify a loyal cadre the next for doing the same thing they did.
If adoption is only for the chosen few, then say so. If the rules only apply to women, to those without godfathers, to those who refuse to be silent, then be honest about it.
NGOCC should immediately come to the aid of lris Kaingu and condemn any efforts aimed at restricting people’s active participation in the country’s democracy. Zambia deserves better than selective outrage from the highest office. Ms. Kaingu did nothing outside what the law and political practice allow. Analysis of the President’s public remarks reveal that such were not about principle. They were about power. And power without fairness is just bullying in a suit.