STOP FOREIGNISING POLITICAL OPPONENTS
Today, the Ministry of Home Affairs and Internal Security issued a Government Gazette notice invalidating the national registration card and passport of opposition politician and lawyer Celestine Mukandila, stating the documents were obtained through “fraud, false declaration, and misrepresentation.
From whatever angle one looks at it, this is unacceptable. The foreignising of political opponents must stop.
A similar thing had happened to John Chinula and William Banda in the 1990s after their party, UNIP, lost power to Fredrick Chiluba and the MMD. They were deported to Malawi.
We supported John and William financially and otherwise. John died in Malawi. We managed to persuade President Levy Mwanawasa to allow William to return home.
The cancellation or revocation of citizenship across African nations is a complex legal and political issue that has historically been used as a tool for political exclusion, national security enforcement, or correcting fraudulent documentation. Under international human rights law and frameworks like the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights, arbitrary stripping of nationality is prohibited, yet several distinct patterns of citizenship cancellation persist across our continent.
A prominent and widely criticised form of citizenship cancellation involves governments stripping the nationality of political opponents, human rights activists, or journalists. This weaponization of denationalization often leaves individuals stateless or exiled.
In late 2025, Chadian President Mahamat Idriss Déby revoked the nationality of two France-based activists, accusing them of actions “incompatible” with citizenship due to their vocal criticism of the government.
This pattern extends back decades. Notable cases include the government of Chiluba stripping our country’s founding President, Kenneth Kaunda, of his citizenship in 1995, and Côte d’Ivoire stripping former prime minister Alassane Ouattara of his nationality in 2000.
Governments frequently cancel national registration or passports when it is determined that the documents were obtained through false declarations, misrepresentation, or administrative corruption.
Mukandila doesn’t deserve this unfair, unjust, and inhuman treatment.
Fred M’membe
Fred and some of your friends have selectively contracted a disease of the mind called Hakaindesis syndeome. Please fo seek treatment before it’s too late. The diseases is curable once medical help is sort.