By Christopher Miti
COLONEL Panji Kaunda says his family cannot move the remains of first president Kenneth Kaunda from the presidential burial site secretly.
Commenting on the theft of the eagle sculpture on his father’s grave at Embassy Park and insinuations that the family could have removed the remains in the night and rebury it at a different place as suggested by some family members, Col Panji said Dr Kaunda would not be reburied anywhere.
“It’s not true that the eagle went missing when some people removed the body of the old man and bury it somewhere. If we are to remove the body and rebury it somewhere, we can do it openly because there is a process and procedure which can come from the people of Zambia. That body does not belong to us but it belongs to the nation,” he said.
Col Panji said if Dr Kaunda’s remains were to be moved from the current place, then it had to come from the government and not the family.
“The government will make sure that everybody knows what is happening. I don’t think that place is guarded as such. I think somebody took it [eagle] away from what we are hearing. I am at the farm (in Vubwi’s Sindemisale area) but that’s what I am being told by my colleagues in Lusaka,” he said.
Col Panji said the state is investigating the disappearance of the eagle from Dr Kaunda’s grave.
“That’s fake news. How can we move the body of the old man privately, ndise mfwiti (are we witches). If there is anything like moving the body, the nation will be told,” he said.
Asked whether the family is still contemplating to move the remains, Col Panji said the court ruled that the body should not be moved.
“You know my brother went to court and challenged the burial of the old man and the court ruled that, the old man belongs to the nation and doesn’t belong to the family as such. As far as we are concerned that is a dead issue now,” said Col Panji.