THERE WILL BE SANITY AT ACC …I hope and trust that Phiri, Mwenye will not change – Kambwili
By Kombe Mataka
PF MEMBER Chishimba Kambwili says he is convinced beyond reasonable doubt that sanity will prevail at the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) with the coming in of new management.
Kambwili told The Mast that he was hopeful that new ACC director general Gilbert Phiri and board chairperson Musa Mwenye would not disappoint the nation.
“With both the chairperson and the director general who have been appointed, I think there will be sanity. I don’t just think, I am convinced beyond reasonable doubt that there will be sanity at the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC), although I have been very disappointed with the behaviour of the current President,” Kambwili
Said in an interview. “From my interaction with him (President Hakainde Hichilema) and from what we used to discuss when we were in opposition, is not what is going on; he has changed. Look, when we had an alliance, and we interacted a lot of times, what we discussed about the governance of this country is not what is going
on.’’
Kambwili said he and President Hichilema discussed a lot of reforms in the governance of the investigative wings like the ACC, which he said
was used to persecute political opponents in the past.
“These unreasonable arrests of political opponents, refusing to give them police bond, detaining people for close to a week or over a week, transporting people to far flung areas where they don’t have relatives; where they don’t live are the things that we discussed and said that these should never happened in a normal society like Zambia,’’ he said. ‘’We discussed that ‘we come in office these things must be a thing of the
Past’. Do you know that my persecution by the Anti-Corruption Commission, we were given information together with my lawyers; that
is Musa Mwenye and the current DG Mr Phiri, that in fact, when the Anti-Corruption Commission told the powers that be that ‘this man
is a clean man who has not committed the offences as alleged’, they were told that ‘just go ahead arrest him and let the courts go and decide because we have over publicised these issues. And if we don’t take him to court people will not take us seriously’.”
Kambwili bemoaned the legal fees he spent on cooked up charges orchestrated by political figures.
“They said ‘just go ahead take him to court and arrest him’. If you remember very well, this is a matter where I was arrested. I ended up being in hospital when people knew for sure that I had not committed any offence at all. I suffered being in court for five years going to court and spent a lot of money on legal fees, some of the legal fees have
not yet being paid up to now,” Kambwili explained
He accused President Hichilema of failing to intervene into arbitrary arrests under his leadership.
“That is why I am saying I am so shocked that the current President is doing exactly what used to happen in the previous regime. When he took
office, the first statement he gave was very encouraging where he said ‘you cannot criticise government without looking on your
shoulders to see who is coming to arrest you’. He said things of arresting people, denying the police bond will never be tolerated by this government,’’ Kambwili said further. ‘’He said, again, the statement he issued yesterday, that people must not rush to arrest before investigations. He said,
when you arrest immediately give police bond, the question is are those things happening now? The answer is no. The question that one can ask is,
what has happened to what we used to discuss with President Hakainde Hichilema concerning these things. What has really happened?’’
Kambwili complained about common detentions without granting police bond which, to him, have continued just like in the PF administration.
‘’So, when I say I have a lot of confidence in my brother Musa Mwenye, in my brother and colleague (Gilbert Phiri), I hope and trust that they will not change like HH has changed. There is absolutely no way that sovereign President of Zambia, whose system is presidential democracy can fail to lift a phone and say ‘you have arrested Chishimba Kambwili, why is it that he is still in
detention for five days,’’ he asked. ‘’You have arrested that Nakacinda, yes, he may have committed an offence yes, there is presumption of innocence until proven guilty. He is a man of fixed abode’. If he is fearing to micromanage, why is he saying investigate before you arrest? Calling is not
micromanaging. The President has set a standard of how he wants things to be done. So, that is not interfering. If the President says arrest and give police bond and he calls an officer to tell them ‘why have you arrested without giving bond that is not interference. It is making sure that the standards that you have set are being followed. In any case, what does the law provide in terms of arrests?”
Kambwili called for an end to what he termed as extra judicial punishments against perceived political opponents.
“What is extra judicial punishment? This is where you detain someone. Detaining someone is imprisonment. So, me I was imprisoned for four
days without being found guilty; that is what is known as extra judicial punishment. And this is what my friend HH and I discussed that it should never happen,’’ Kambwili explained. ‘’Now, people are just drunk with unknown powers and become insecure because they have found that power is so sweet and they don’t want to lose it. And on top of that they feel if we fix our opponent then I will be there for life, but political power
is such a very temporal power. I hope and trust my brother Musa Mwenye and Gilbert Phiri will not let me done. I worked with Musa Mwenye as Attorney General when I was in Cabinet. I don’t think he is a man who can be interfered with and
told to do wrong things and accept. My interaction with Gilbert Phiri, who was extremely upset at the way magistrate (David) Simusamba used to behave towards me, to the extent that we had to complain to the Judicial Service Commission, I have a lot of respect for these two gentlemen just like I had a lot of respect for President Hakainde Hichilema but he has let me down really badly.’’Kambwili advised President Hichilema to be tolerant of criticism.
‘’When you are a leader, you should have a thick skin. Look at what happened to those boys. It was very unfortunate for those boys to insult the Head of State but on the other hand you must know that
they are only in grade four. They did not even understand the consequence of their action. If I were President, it’s such people that you even call to State House and let them be mentored and go home and warn not to do it again,” said Kambwili.