By Fanny Kalonda
SHIWANG’ANDU PF member of parliament Stephen Kampyongo says the former ruling party’s loss of the Kabushi seat in Ndola is a big blow.
And Kampyongo says it is shocking that people are accusing the PF of formulating and distributing pornographic videos depicting DEC director general Mary Chirwa.
Featuring on Diamond TV’s Diamond live programme on Monday, Kampyongo said Bowman Lusambo had done well in representing the people of Kabushi.
“I must say it was a big blow. Speaking first of all as PF whip in Parliament and also as a member of central committee, it was a big blow to all us PF members in parliament. And it was a big blow to the party as well,” he said. “Why? Because honourable Lusambo has been a people’s representative in Kabushi and we expected that he would run the term. We were all petitioned. I think all the 60 members of parliament were petitioned. And I think you have seen some cases ending up at the Constitutional Court. So, we will respect the decision of the court.”
Kampyongo however expressed relief that other election nullifications by the High Court were not upheld by the Constitutional Court.
“But we were devastated. We had a relief though, 24 hours later that the two judgments that came out were in favour, of our current member of parliament for Kamfinsa. Christopher Kang’ombe was confirmed as being the duly elected member of parliament for Kamfinsa and that brought a sigh of relief for us. Similarly, the upholding of the election of Christopher Shakafuswa as duly elected member of parliament for Mandevu also brought a lot of relief to us,” he said. “And we will listen to the people of Kabushi because I think that honourable Lusambo has done his best in representing the people of Kabushi. He has worked with them. First, I would like to commend the senior members of central committee and members of parliament who took time to go and give solidarity to honourable Lusambo when he went back to tell the people what transpired in the Constitutional Court.”
Kampyongo said although Lusambo has offered to recontest, the party would follow its normal adoption process.
“Honourable Lusambo has offered himself but the processes will have to still be followed – the process of adopting candidates that was designed by the party will be followed. He has got every right to indicate his availability. And that in itself is not a problem, is acceptable. But that’s not to say that they won’t go through this process,” he added.
And Kampyongo said the party has acknowledged its shortcomings when in power, adding that issues of violence are not just one sided as it takes two to tango.
“…wanting to look at the degree of how these matters were acted upon, and the conclusions of the violence, I mean it’s two to tango. And like I’ve said it’s not about, you know, that we lost our colleague during the elections – was killed at a polling station. You understand? So, I don’t know if that gets to be partisan, though. Do you understand? Electing a leader, you end up losing a life as we did! It’s something that I think we need to look at, from the policy point of view,” he said. “Violence, corruption, are things that we have had in this country and I think it would be unfair to say that this is the person that has been found wanting. You need to look at the degree at which these things were adjudicated upon by the court and the conclusions of the court. This violence, you know, it takes two to tango and we also have a colleague we lost during the election who was killed in cold blood at the polling station. I wonder if that case had to be petitioned how it had ended. If when choosing a leader, we have to lose someone… I think this is something we need to look at from the holistic point of view. But that is not to say that where violence activities… it’s human to acknowledge some of these shortcomings. But like I said, you need to look at the holistic picture. What caused that because it takes two to tango. It takes two to tango. I don’t think when campaigning to be elected, you go to beat people, and they can elect, you understand?”
Meanwhile, Kampyongo defended the PF from public perception that they authored and distributed pornographic videos depicting Drug Enforcement Commission (DEC) director general Mary Chirwa fondling herself.
He said no one was blamed when a PF colleague’s videos went viral on social media.
“First of all, I can only comment with a heavy heart. Those are matters that no one would want to really get to discuss because of the effects they have. We as the Patriotic Front brought the law, the cyber security law, to partly deal with some of those activities. Be it bullying, be it circulation of pornographic materials. And why, because of some of the incidents that occurred in the past. You recall that there was a student at some college who was dragged to court and prosecuted. Remember that there were no sufficient laws,” he said in apparent reference to former ZICAS student Iris Kaingu’s sex video that went viral in 2011. “And we had unfortunately, another very difficult for me to even talk about because it involved a colleague (former education minister David Mabumba), was being scammed by some foreign elements. You understand? Difficult time I still can vouch for the gentleman that he was a hardworking, a very committed member of parliament, and hardworking member of the cabinet. It was sad that we had to lose him in the manner that we lost him. He had to pick up pieces and we kept praying for him. Again, this is not the first time this is happening. But it’s so shocking that people would start apportioning blame. How does PF come in? I don’t think when we dealt with our colleague, as difficult as it is to talk about, no one was blamed. Because that scam that our friend went through, was extended to many people including some of us, because they were sending those messages, and all those kinds of thing. What benefit would the PF have?”