THE KILLING OF A STATE PROSECUTOR AND UPNDs SUPPORTER DURING ECL’s PF REGIME
A report from the past, “Ruling by fear and repression,” Amnesty International detailed how the rights to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly had come under increasing attack, with opposition leaders and activists being jailed, independent media outlets shut down, and at least five people killed by the police since 2016.
Then Zambia’s ruling Patriotic Front (PF) party, led by President Edgar Lungu since 25 January, 2015, sought re-election on 12 August, 2021. The PF came to power in 2011, after Michael Sata’s victory. Sata later died in office in 2014, and the human rights situation had drastically deteriorated under Lungu’s presidency ( Amnesty International, 28 June 2021).
ECL’s time in government saw police extra-judicial killings in Zambia.
On Wednesday, 23rd December , 2020; HH, then president of the opposition, the United Party for National Development (UPND), was summoned for interrogations at the police headquarters in Lusaka-in relation to the purchase of a farm he bought in 2004 in Kalomo (Bloomberg, December 23, 2020/NewsDiggers, 2020).
That Wednesday, the environment was tense and politically charged as Zambia’s capital, Lusaka came to a standstill. The police used the then newly acquired riot armoured vehicles to barricade all roads that lead to police headquarters, barring even journalists from accessing the premises (Bruce Chooma-Africa Blogging, 29 December, 2020/NewsDiggers, 2020).
At around 10:00 hours, prior to Hichilema’s arrival, a convoy of buses loaded with UPND sympathises was seen passing through the High Court roundabout.
Initially, officers fired teargas canisters and flashbangs to disperse the UPND cadres who were slowly increasing in number around the High Court area before they decided to change tactics and resorted to firing live ammunition (NewsDiggers, 2020).
Two men Nsama Nsama Chipyoka a public prosecutor and Joseph Kaunda an opposition party supporter died of gunshot wounds during the fracas. Inspector-General of Police Kakoma Kanganja confirmed the deaths but said they occurred in “unknown circumstances” while officers tried to break up the gathering (Bruce Chooma-Africa Blogging, 29.12.2020).
State prosecutor Nsama Nsama, who was not part of the gathering, was shot dead while buying a meal (breakfast) at a nearby restaurant, while Joseph Kaunda, a UPND supporter, was shot by police as they dispersed the crowd.
This wasn’t the first unreasonable killings during PF, in October 2018, Vespers Shimuzhila, a student at the University of Zambia, died after police threw a tear gas canister into her room as they violently dispersed a student protest. Her family were given $25,000USD in compensation but no officer had been charged. (Amnesty International,28 June 2021/ 21 March 2022).
Preliminary investigations by the Human Rights Commission had established that Mr. Nsama, a State Prosecutor working for the National Prosecution Authority (NPA) and Joseph Kaunda, a Kafue based UPND sympathiser were shot dead, about 10 metres from each other near the NPA offices.
The Commission expressed shock at the indiscriminate use of live ammunition by the police in an area surrounded by public offices such as Cabinet Office, the Ministry of Justice, the British High Commission, and others including private places such as the Restaurant where the majority of workers around go to eat from (Bruce Chooma-Africa Blogging, 29 December, 2020).
In fact, these killings happened after The Minister of Home Affairs Hon Stephen Kampyongo had issued a strong warning to members and sympathisers of HH to stay away from the streets as HH attended to the police call out. This warning was echoed by then Lusaka Province Minister Bowman Lusambo: “police know what to do,” he warned UPND supporters who had planned to escort HH at the police service headquarters in Lusaka.
The Law Association of Zambia (LAZ) observed that it had become fashionable for the police to use live ammunition, killing unarmed and innocent citizens. LAZ cited another incident of February 13, 2020, were a Grade 9 Pupil was shot dead by the police who were targeting protesters. The organization lamented and stressed that the practices by the police fell below internationally accepted standards for policing and crowd control.
Otherwise, then opposition leader, HH had charged that Nsama Nsama and Joseph, were killed by snippers who were planted to kill innocent citizens as they were both shot in the head; indicating that the shooting was intentional. But, president ECL had given the police 3 days to investigate the matter.
According to the 2021 Country Reports On Human Rights Practices: zambia, on February 24, 2021 police arrested and charged Constable Fanwell Nyundu with two counts of murder in connection with the killings. In its March 4 statement released after independent investigations into the killings, the Human Rights Commission (HRC) noted that the shooting was an excessive use of force and a blatant violation of the rights to life, freedom of assembly, and movement and alleged that former Lusaka Province police commissioner Nelson Phiri was responsible for the killings. The case relating to the killing remained pending trial at year’s end (U.S. EMBASSY IN ZAMBIA, APRIL 13, 2022).
I don’t know about PF bouncing back in 2026, but: my book, is coming-soon ❤🙏
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