JAILING OF NAKACINDA USING ABOLISHED LAW WORRIES KALABA AS IT EXPOSES JUDICIARY
LUSAKA, Friday, October 24, 2025 – We are deeply concerned by the incarceration of Patriotic Front (PF) Secretary General Raphael Nakacinda, whose conviction and jail sentence raises more questions than answers. This judgment, based on the defamation of the President Law, is alarming because that very law was abolished and repealed by President Hakainde Hichilema and his administration
It is troubling that the Lusaka High Court has upheld a conviction anchored on a legal provision that no longer exists. This development undermines public confidence in the justice system and erodes the principle of equal application of the law.
Zambians will recall that on June 2, 2023, the late New Labour Party president Fresher Siwale was granted an absolute discharge by then Lusaka Magistrate Alice Walusiku after being charged under the same defamation of the President law. The court found that Mr Siwale had been prosecuted under an abolished and repealed provision.
We now ask. What is the difference between Mr Siwale’s case and Mr Nakacinda’s? Why has one citizen benefited from the repeal while another is being punished under a non-existent law? These are legitimate questions that demand honest answers from the authorities.
The rule of law must be applied fairly, consistently, and without bias regardless of political affiliation or personal sentiment. Whether President Hichilema and his administration agree with Mr Nakacinda or not, justice must remain blind and impartial. Anything less amounts to selective justice, which threatens the very foundation of our democracy.
Citizens First (CF) therefore condemns, in the strongest terms, the selective application of the law and urges the judiciary to uphold justice in its purest form free from political influence and double standards.
Issued by:
Harry Kalaba
President – Citizens First (CF)
Ba Kalaba, are you saying you are smarter than Mr. Nakachinda’s lawyers? Why didn’t his lawyers argue that the was repealed?
Ba Kalaba, it doenot make sense for someone to be jailed over a law that doesnot exist.
The time he committed that crime the law was not yet abolished,
Harry Kalaba has started a legitimate debate. We can all benefit from legal minds on this issue. Raphael Nakacinda’s lie about President Hakainde Hichilema summoning judges to his house in order to exert pressure on them is available on film with clear audios and picture. The judges must have felt injured by Nakacinda’s unfounded utterances and when he was arrested they were looking forward to seeing his evidence in court. Nakacinda had none and therefore deserved to go to jail. It’s perhaps fitting in this regard to ask why Nakacinda did not seek to apologise to the Judiciary for drawing it into his political battles with HH.
It’s a pity that someone who was lawmaker and now aspiring for presidency can be so ignorant about simple matters of law and justice.
The law to defame the President was only abolished after Nakachinda had committed the offence. And law does not operate in retrospect. So, clearly Nakachinda committed an offence and was properly tried and convicted and jailed. It is not political and Courts should not be drawn in this self-inflicted offence by Nakachinda. Kalaba must read abd consult otherwise he will make a bad leader operating from ignorance.
To think that this man wants to be President. Does he not have lawyers to give insight before exposing his ignorance or this was one of “his divine insights” that just shows how out of touch he is with his God.