By The Observer Zambia
“STUCK BETWEEN A ROCK AND A HARD PLACE AS PF-ALIGNED LAWYERS ABANDON HIM
First of all, we must put it on record that we take no pleasure in seeing another man being thrown under the bus for simply standing up for themselves and looking out for their own family. Shi Kiya today is stuck between a hard place and a rock for simply growing a pair and saying “enough is enough”! to his perceived puppet masters in green.
It saddens us to see a man go to court to face the prosecutors all alone in cases that were brought about mainly as a result of pushing the agenda for the men in green. Unfortunately, the political landscape at the moment is so uneven that smaller political parties without the financial muscle cannot stand on their own without sucking up to bigger guys.
Unfortunately for the former seminarian, former civil society leader cum family-man and “public lawyer”, a man in his position is incapable of standing for anything; his two cents means nothing to those with financial muscle, its either their way or the high way.
Therefore, unless a financial miracle happens, the likes of shi Kiya will forever epitomize sebana wikute and bumushanina bwali. It’s not a sexy position to be in for a family man and smartly dressed like shi Kiya, but the man has to survive.
With that said, one may be tempted to joyfully sit in the terraces and watch shi Kiya run the full course of this self-inflicted legal tsunami owing to his perceived political inconsistencies. The cases that he is facing today are due to his own verbal diarrhea against those with the instruments of people and the criminal justice system at their disposal. By his own confession, shi Kiya’s strategy has been anchored aligning himself with bigger boys in the opposition political party space such as the those in green and uncle Fred to insulate him against inevitable bad things like court cases and empty pockets.
In view of the foregoing, one is tempted to ask shi Kiya what his plan was when he started throwing political missiles at his allies in green unprovoked. How did he envisage this to pan out? Did he expect PF to lay red carpet for him as he walked those court corridors after speaking ill of them the previous night? Did he expect those expensive lawyers to be leaving their air-conditioned offices to go and provide legal services to him pro-bono? Did he expect the lawyers to continue buying him nshima for him to have the energy to come and castigate their sponsors during his 20:00hrs live broadcast?
On the other hand, there is no love lost between shi Kiya and the outfit in red mainly due to his political-pendulum approach to issues. Despite his apparent reconciliation with Chief Mukuni, which was inconsequential because his cases are criminal in nature so it’s the people against him, shi Kiya cannot be embraced wholeheartedly by those in red.
Further, given his explosive and unpredictable nature, those in red that he has wronged would not want to let him off the leash so easily lest he aims his political bazookas at them again. In-fact, the longer his cases take in court, the better for them because they would have secured a strategic political pit-bull to unleash on their political opponents.
While the latest suggestion by shi Kiya to represent himself in court may sound comical and seem like an act of karma to many, because of his apparent lack of principles, to us this is a serious call for help; the man must be going through a lot. We are pretty sure that when the camera is off after his 20:00hrs live broadcast, she Kiya has some serious sleepless nights.
In conclusion, we are cognizant of the fact that shi Kiya is not the type that takes advice, he is Mr. Smart Mouth, the Alpha and Omega of all political wisdom, but we will hand him this advice anyway. If his title of “the public lawyer” is tempting him to think that he can go and do “chochise” in court and escape the gates of Chombokaila prison, he should abandon those thoughts forthwith. If he goes ahead and attempts to represent himself, he will soon know what they mean by “he who represents himself has a fool for a client”; he will learn the hard way why people spend at least four years in Law School to get an LLB then spend unpredictable time and money at ZIALE before earning themselves the title of “learned collogue”.
Our earnest and brotherly advice to shi Kiya is to eat humble pie, accept the fact that he is alone and lonely, then pray to the court for time to allow him secure some free legal representation from Legal Aid. For now, we can only wish shi Kiya the best of luck as he tries to secure some political grip because he is slowly but surely losing it.
By The Observer Zambia