SPEAKER NELLIE MUTTI’S CONSTITUTIONAL BREACHES MUST END……BEFORE SHE PLUNGES OUR COUNTRY INTO CHAOS- UKA

SPEAKER NELLIE MUTTI’S CONSTITUTIONAL BREACHES MUST END……BEFORE SHE PLUNGES OUR COUNTRY INTO CHAOS
4th April 2024

As the United Kwacha Alliance (UKA), we have noticed National Assembly Speaker, Nellie Mutti´s continued wanton breach of the constitution.

If Ms Mutti´s wanton desecration of not only the constitution but what is left of the integrity in the Zambia National Assembly is not stopped, we will have nothing but only a shell of our democracy left in our nation. She is a threat to the very core legislative justice and discourse.

We refer to the matter of her decision to ‘endorse’ one Mr. Miles Sampa as the sole candidate for Zambia to the Presidency of the Pan African Parliament (PAP), a decision that has raised dust not only in Zambia but the entire continent. This is due to the legal encumbrances that surround Mr Sampa’s existence in the Zambian parliament.

In October last year, Mr. Sampa, the Matero Constituency Member of Parliament, was first suspended and then later expelled for a myriad of offences that are not just on the table of his former ruling party the Patriotic Front (PF), but also in the courts of law in Zambia as well as the very Parliament that Ms. Mutti presides over.

Respected Constitutional Lawyer SC John Sangwa observed that the issue of Mr. Sampa, “cannot be adjudicated upon by any other body until the courts act.” He was further quoted in a recorded live interview on Radio Phoenix as having said “the Speaker has ´gone rogue´ because you cannot have a matter before the courts of law adjudicated upon by anyone else.” In simple language Ms. Mutti should not be granting the favours she is giving Sampa unless she is perhaps compromised, or it is the courts that are on TRIAL.

An URGENT injunction was taken out by the aggrieved party, the PF which Mr. Sampa believes he now heads with the blessings of Ms Mutti. The injunction has not been heard in more than five months, defeating the very purpose of the ´injunction´.

It is therefore with utter dismay that we have noted Ms. Mutti´s decision to not only endorse Mr. Sampa, an embattled member of parliament but to also write a letter to the Pan African Parliament (PAP) recommending that he becomes the President of PAP from our Parliament and where he was expelled by his party.

Ms. Mutti has ignored court processes challenging her decision to recognise renegade Sampa as President of PF and now she is, in our view as UKA, committing a further breach of the constitution by endorsing him to the highest seat in PAP.

Speaker Mutti’s actions are extremely reckless and can only be interpreted as a bidding to please President HH and the UPND at the expense of Zambia’s international image.

Are we, as a nation, incapable of finding someone more suited to the role of PAP President than Mr. Sampa?

Why is Ms Mutti blatantly breaching the constitution?

Why is Ms Mutti risking her entire career for Mr Miles? What is the score?

Jackson Silavwe
Chairperson Communications
United Kwacha Alliance
(UKA)

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