Kambwili Returns, Old Politics Intact

🇿🇲 EDITORIAL | Kambwili Returns, Old Politics Intact

Chishimba Kambwili is back on the airwaves, loud as ever, and sounding exactly like the past Zambia tried to leave behind. His latest remarks on Radio Mano in Kasama, tying a royal funeral to voting choices in a mayoral by-election, mark a return to grievance politics that once thrilled party bases but ultimately collapsed under the weight of their own excess.

Yes, questions around the absence of the President and Vice President at the funeral of the Paramount Chief’s wife are legitimate. Public figures invite scrutiny. State protocol invites debate. What crosses the line is weaponising mourning to mobilise votes along regional or ethnic sentiment. Turning a funeral into a ballot instruction is not political accountability. It is emotional blackmail dressed as mobilisation.

This is not new behaviour. In 2021, Kambwili became one of the loudest voices pushing divisive language that framed politics as a battle of regions rather than a contest of ideas. He paid a legal price for it. The Patriotic Front paid a political price for it. Voters rejected it. Even in regions where such rhetoric was expected to resonate, the PF lost ground decisively at presidential level. That outcome alone should have forced reflection.

Zambia is not as tribal as its loudest politicians pretend. The record is clear. When voters sense manipulation, they pull away. Civil society did not rise this week with condemnations or press statements, not because the remarks were harmless, but because the country has grown tired of relitigating the same arguments. People have moved on. Some politicians have not.

There is also a deeper irony. Kambwili speaks as if he still defines the centre of opposition politics, yet even inside PF, gravity has shifted. Party structures are mobilising around new names and new claims to leadership. Brian Mundubile draws one bloc. Makebi Zulu draws another. The old guard is no longer unchallenged. Their response has not been renewal. It has been resistance. Confusion follows.

This is the problem with recycling 2011 and 2015 tactics in 2026. The context has changed. Speech laws are tighter. Voters are more issue-aware. Elections are less forgiving of theatrics without substance. Calls to punish a government over funeral attendance sit awkwardly beside real questions voters are asking about jobs, agriculture payments, education, health, and local governance.

The opposition’s credibility crisis is not caused by media scrutiny. It is caused by an addiction to outrage politics that offers no alternative programme. Removing a president is not a policy. Replacing one ruling elite with another is not reform. When interviews circle endlessly around anger, betrayal, and grievance, voters hear survival, not leadership.

Kambwili’s return is a reminder, not a revival. A reminder of why PF lost power in 2021. A reminder of how fast politics collapses when it feeds on division. Zambia’s future will not be decided on radio rants or funeral registers. It will be decided by leaders who understand that the country has outgrown politics built on noise, fear, and nostalgia.

The message is simple. Civil politics is not weakness. It is maturity. Those who refuse to adapt will keep shouting into a country that has already walked past them.

© The People’s Brief | Editor-in-Chief