By Chambwa Moonga
ZAMBIAN lawyer Elias Munshya says the problem with the Zambia Police is not any police officer but the culture and the messaging that State House under President Edgar Lungu keeps giving to the service.
Munshya is based in Calgary city, Alberta in Canada.
Munshya says while he is non-partisan, there is a presidential aspirant he does not want to win this year’s vote – Lungu.
In a live video on Wednesday, Munshya reacted to President Lungu’s shake-up of the Zambia Police command on Tuesday.
The shake-up saw the firing of Nelson Phiri (Lusaka Province police commissioner), Bonny Kapeso (deputy Inspector General of Police – operations) and Eugene Sibote (deputy Inspector General of Police – administration).
The changes also positively affected Northern Province police commissioner Richard Mweene and his Copperbelt counterpart Charity Katanga, who were promoted to be deputy Inspector General of Police – administration, and operations, respectively.
The President gave Inspector General of Police Kakoma Kanganja a six-month contract in which to reform the Zambia Police, including finding ways of regaining the declining public confidence in the service.
The changes were necessitated by the killing of two citizens, Joseph Kaunda and Nsama Nsama Chipyoka by riot police on December 23, 2020 in Lusaka.
“The problem with the police right now…the issue with the Zambia Police is not the Zambia Police. [But] the issue with the Zambia Police is State House. The issue with the Zambia Police is the President!” Munshya said. “It is not Kanganja; it is not even Charity Katanga or any of these. It is the leadership that President Lungu is providing to the police.”
He emphasised that if there was anything that needed reorganisation, “it is the reorganisation of the President.”
“No matter how you say that you are going to reorganise the Zambia Police, if the President continues approaching the Zambia Police in the manner he has been approaching [it] there will be no change,” he said. “In a few weeks [from now], they are going to shoot and kill again. Therefore, the problem is the culture and the messaging that State House keeps giving to the Zambia Police. That is where the problem is!”
Munshya explained that if the matter was just about police indiscipline, it would have been intelligibly addressed by now.
“It is very easy to deal with police indiscipline – you fire the undisciplined police officers,” he noted. “[But] the problem here is not the Zambia Police. President Lungu needs to look at himself in the mirror and see himself as the cause of the problems and indiscipline that is happening in the Zambia Police.”
Munshya argued that there would be nothing that would positively change simply because President Lungu asked Kanganja to reorganise the Zambia Police.
He reiterated that President Lungu and his ministers have begun to revise the Zambian democracy.
“President Lungu continues to revise Zambian democracy and he is using the police to do so. And so unless he back-peddles on his desire to revise Zambian democracy, the police will continue to shoot and kill the people of Zambia,” Munshya said.
He further asked what reorganisation of the police could happen when the government has “bought them weaponry for killing.”
“How then are they (police officers) going to use those sophisticated weapons they have purchased for them?” he wondered. “So, if there’s any culture change that is needed of our government, it’s to change from this bloodthirsty orientation to service.”
Munshya stressed that instead of reorganising the police command, it is “Mr Lungu himself” who should actually be reorganised.
He asked: “how do you expect police officers to professionally execute their duties when you have bought hearses for them?”
“It means you are sending them to go and kill [citizens],” Munshya said. “So, this issue of saying he has changed the deputy Inspector General of Police to bring confidence in the police, kwi (where)? They are all useless cosmetic changes. Absolutely useless!”
Munshya indicated that elections were due this August and that: “Zambians will have an opportunity to vote him (President Lungu) out.”
“I’m non-partisan! Nomba (now) there’s only one party iyo nshifwaya (that I don’t like), nangu (or a) candidate uwo nshilefwaya mukavote (who I don’t like you to vote for). Ni (and that’s) Lungu pantu (because) Lungu euletucusha (is making us to suffer),” he said.
“He has failed to rule this country and Zambians, shouldn’t vote for him.”
Meanwhile, Munshya told some PF cadres who frequently criticise him that he had no problem with them.
“I have no problem with Patriotic Front supporters because just like me, they are equally struggling and suffering,” noted Munshya. “The issue is that we have a President whose leadership is not good. Patriotic Front cadres, we are in the same boat – we are being affected by the bad decisions of President Lungu.”