Lieutenant Colonel Patrick Kafumukache—the cheerful soldier who marched from the barracks to Cabinet.
Born on July 13, 1945, Lt Col Kafumukache was a former Cabinet Minister and Member of Parliament for Kasempa.
Like many young Zambians of the post-independence generation, Lt Col Kafumukache found himself in uniform rather than behind a desk counting government stationery.
He was among the young Zambians sent to the United Kingdom for military training following independence.
He received his six-month officer cadet training at the Mons Officer Cadet School in the UK.
Lt Col Kafumukache returned to Zambia as a Second Lieutenant following his commissioning from Mons during the mid-1960s, at a time when the Zambian military was using Mons as a faster pipeline for training its junior officers.
Upon his return to Zambia, Lt Col Kafumukache was among the officers appointed by the head of the Zambia Defence Force, General Kingsley Chinkuli to serve in different branches.
Gen Chinkuli appointed Major George Zyongwe as head of A Branch (Administrative Branch), Major Kafumukache as head of G Branch (Operations and Training), and Major Dunstan Kasote as head of Q Branch (Supplies, Stores and Equipment), while Lt Colonel Benjamin Mibenge became Chief of Staff, effectively the Commander’s deputy among others.
So, while some of us today struggle to decide which WhatsApp group to mute, these gentlemen were busy deciding how an entire defence force was going to be organised. Different times.
Lt Col Kafumukache also served as an aide-de-camp (ADC) to President Kenneth Kaunda in the late 1960s before quitting the army in the early 70s.
Then came politics.
In 1991, Lt Col Kafumukache was elected Member of Parliament for Kasempa on the MMD ticket after polling 2,139 votes, against his closest rival, UNIP’s Benson Kasempa, who got 848 votes.
He served as a backbencher from 1991 to 1996, before National Party’s John Muasa took over the reins as Kasempa Constituency Member of Parliament.
For most people, losing a parliamentary seat would have been a fairly clear signal to unpack the retirement clothes and move on.
But Lt Col Kafumukache apparently did not receive that memo.
Five years later, he returned to the political battlefield.
In 2001, Lt Col Kafumukache made a comeback to Parliament on the MMD ticket, polling 4,082 votes against his closest rival, UPND’s Nathan Matafwali, who got 2,129 votes.
Zambian politics had once again demonstrated one of its oldest traditions: you may lose your seat, but that does not necessarily mean you have lost your political appetite.
Sometimes Parliament is less of a permanent address and more of a place you keep trying to move back into.
And this was no ordinary comeback.
The man who had left Parliament in 1996 returned in 2001 and, within months, was no longer merely occupying a backbench seat.
In January 2002, Lt Col Kafumukache was appointed Copperbelt Province Minister.
A year later, he was elevated to the position of full Cabinet Minister of Labour and Social Security.
So, in the space of a few years, Lt Col Kafumukache went from former MP to returning MP, from returning MP to Provincial Minister, and from Provincial Minister to Cabinet.
That was not a comeback. That was a political re-entry with express clearance.
He served in this position until his passing on December 3, 2004, at the University Teaching Hospital, at the age of 59.
Lt Col Kafumukache was buried in Kasempa at Mukinge Hills Cemetery bringing his journey full circle: born at Mukinge Mission Hospital, laid to rest at Mukinge Hills.
Those who interacted with him especially the labour movement leaders, remember him as a man with a cheerful personality.
From the military barracks, to State House as an ADC, to Parliament, out of Parliament, and then back into Parliament before rising into Cabinet, Lt Col Kafumukache lived several chapters of Zambia’s post-independence military and political history.
His political career may have had an intermission, but it certainly did not have a final curtain until December 2004.
May his soul continue to rest in eternal peace.