ON THEIR OWN LAND
[The Telling Case of Kasompe]
A TERRIBLE atrocity has been committed.
Tears now flow.
Once joyous citizens, now remain anguished and gnashing their teeth.
Utterly bewildered they remain, at the cruelty meted out on them by their own methodical and unfeeling leader.
Evil causes grief.
And evil is the genesis of the Kasompe tale, a sordid tale that can only cause joy to the Devil and his followers.
On THEIR OWN LAND, land which they own, with their bare blistered hands, these citizens, for years laboured to build houses for themselves using resources earned with difficulty and pain. Then done, a measure of comfort descended upon them, success from personal initiatives having been attained, they then began to peacefully live in these houses, secure Zambians that they thought they were.
Then the bulldozers came, driven by non-feeling creatures, sent by Hakainde HICHILEMA, the very man they voted for, the Republican President they created.
Then as if in a dream, one by one, their houses, expensive structures which their own government cannot afford to build for them, began to fall to the ground.
Demolition Day had come.
Then the pain of seeing your own house, the house you suffered to build for yourself destroyed by the very people whom YOU employ and SUPERVISE, engulfed them.
The bitter tears of Kasompe residents are still flowing today. They will flow forever.
A leader needs empathy.
A leader must feel for his flock, his people.
You see, Pilgrim, the Republican Constitution is inferior to the collective will of citizens.
It is they that give birth to it, and as time and enlightenment permit, it is THEY that abolish it or make amendments to it.
Kasompe land belongs to Zambia’s citizens.
The very people whose homes/houses were demolished can decide, and NOT any Republican President by himself,, whether or not an airstrip or mine is a priority for them.
Planes, you see, are vehicles. They move, but houses do NOT.
People matter.
But planes do NOT at all.
Kasompe laid bare the callous heart of Hakainde HICHILEMA.
Hakainde HICHILEMA planted a very bad seed at Kasompe, whose harvest is coming soon, for as one maketh his bed so shall he lay on it.
The sad way the houses fell at Kasompe is exactly the sad way Hakainde HICHILEMA’s reign as Zambia’s Republican President will soon fall/end.
Demolition Day for his presidency is coming.
A leader must never inflict pain and suffering on his followers.
When he does this, this is akin to defeating himself, he then acts at variance with the very REASON/purpose of his reign.
You raze to the ground a house, shelter for a man, his wife and children, worse still shelter for a WIDOW and her children.
Then you go there and give the teary and grieving owners K1000 as compensation?
Disguised as law enforcement, this then is pure evil.
Surely, as above has its below, the DIRE effect/reaction to this unwise action will soon show. Winanso, azalila.
Kasompe is a national disaster.
It is also Hakainde HICHILEMA’s own personal leadership disaster.
Houses have fallen, the foundations have cracked.
Soon his reign will equally fall, Hakainde’s presidency is now in peril.
People first always, my man.
Business and all else, second.
Now a terrible calamity has occurred.
A bad seed has been sown.
New dawn.
And with it, new levels of suffering have come.
Tulecula.
Tulelila.
Lesa mutumfwe.
NEVER AGAIN, I lay my petition before God.
Father, as they cast their eyes on you, carry the heavy burdens of these anguished and weary citizens, comfort them Lord, I pray.
Dr Canisius BANDA
Development Activist
29 August 2022