IT’S not true that Kapiri Mposhi member of parliament Stanley Kakubo has failed the electorate in his constituency, says UPND Central Province chairman Albert Chifita.
And Chifita has taunted Kabushi PF member of parliament Bowman Lusambo and the ruling party’s leadership that they had “gone to Kapiri Mposhi with a big basket hoping to catch breams but ended up catching only two jelly fish”.
Recently during the PF mobilisation rally in Kapiri Mposhi, Lusambo who is also Copperbelt PF mobilisation chairman, charged the district had continued to lag behind because it lacked representation in Parliament.
Lusambo accused Kakubo of failing to attend to various developmental needs and aspirations of the people in the area.
“You don’t have an MP in Kapiri Mposhi…the current MP runs away from Parliament when you’ve sent him there to represent you. So in 2021 you need an MP, and that MP should be a PF MP to develop Kapiri,” said Lusambo.
When contacted for a comment, Kakubo refused to issue any statement on the allegations.
“I have no comment on that…you can just use the content that you have. No comment boss,” said Kakubo.
However, Chifita has come to the defence of the UPND lawmaker, saying Lusambo knew nothing about problems people were facing in Kapiri Mposhi.
“As UPND provincial leadership in Central Province, we would want to put on record that we know the developmental challenges facing the people of Kapiri Mposhi Constituency and how Kakubo has been striving to address those challenges because the area MP has been giving us feedback,’ he said. “Mr Lusambo is Kabushi member of parliament and, at the same time, he is the current PF mobilisation chairman for Copperbelt Province. So, he is not abreast with the problems facing the people in Kapiri Mposhi. He is not competent to comment on that. It’s not true that Kapiri Mposhi member of parliament Stanley Kakubo is an absentee MP who has failed the electorate in his constituency.”
Chifita mocked Lusambo and the PF over their attempts to discredit Kakubo.
“We know our colleagues in the PF are in the campaign mode. And we know that those that have been tasked with the responsibility to mobilise the ruling party ahead of the 2021 general elections want to portray a picture that the PF is still popular when in fact not. So they are trying to stage-manage defections,” said Chifita. “And when Bowman Lusambo and his mobilisation team went to Kapiri Mposhi, that is exactly the picture they wanted to portray. Unfortunately, Bowman Lusambo and the PF leadership had gone to Kapiri Mposhi with a big basket hoping to catch breams of fish but ended up catching only two jelly fish. But the UPND in Central Province is not shaken by those two stage-managed defections.”
At one of Lusambo’s meetings, two UPND officials, Charles Nundwe Malembeka and Howard Shike, resigned from the opposition political party to join the PF.