Uku ukunina umuti kumabula – Hon. Chitotela tells Government
….Human Rights cannot be determined by you and me alone NO it requires every Zambian to vote….
Parliament News, 10th December, 2022
Pambashe Member of Parliament Hon. Ronald Kaoma Chitotela has urged the New Dawn Government to deal with the Criminal procedure amendment Bill brought to the House carefully by allowing the Zambian Citizens to have a say in the amendments of the supreme laws of our land.
Speaking when he debated the Criminal procedure code (amendment) bill that was being read for the second time, Hon. Chitotela begun by quoting for members on the right of the speaker part 3 12 (1) of the constitution which deals with the protection of Human Rights to be specific number 12.
“Madam Speaker In 2016 General election we the people of Zambia decided to go to vote and Zambians called for the amendment of the constitution and because part number three calls for the general participation of the Zambian people we called for a Referendum and this was to allow the Zambians have a direct say on what they wished to be contained in the constitution and part 3 12
“A person shall not be deprived of his life intentionally except in executional sentence of a court in respect of criminal offense under the law enforce in Zambia of which he/she has been convicted of”
In view of the above mentioned, The Former cabinet Minister said the offenses that subject somebody to be executed are prescribed in the proposed bill that the Minister of Justice is bring to the House seeking amendment.
“But where I have a problem with this is that we want to deal with a child and then we leave the father. When H.E addressed the Zambian people and promised to deal with the matter of not executing Zambians as form of punishment and Minister of justice on several occasions he stood and said we need to contentious matters in the constitution so that once we amend these clauses it will be easier for us to deal with the subsidiary legislation. I have a problem with supporting this by amending the parliamentary legislations without dealt with the constitution”
He stated that such moves with bring more confusion as “we may have Zambians who tomorrow can go to the constitutional court and require the interpretation of this constitutional provision because our constitution has provided for death penalty although the cases are not listed in the constitution but in the sub legislation? Now we want to deal with the sub legislation and leave the subject matter in the constitution? In bemba we say “ukunina umuti kumabula” meaning you are doing things upside down.
The Pambashe lawmaker said he expected the Minister or Government to call all stakeholders to share their views.
“Minister you can’t bring an act of parliament to amend and then leave out the principle law in the constitution”
“Let’s deal with the subject matter and have the day of the people, this a route we tried as Patriotic Front then Government because we wanted to do things correctly we went with the constitution and we understood that this provision requires a referendum we went to the Zambian people but unfortunately it did not pass”
He advised the Minister to consider withdrawing this provision and deal with constitution it will be easier for the house to amend the sub legislation.
“YOU MUST UNDERSTAND THAT HUMAN RIGHTS CAN NOT BE DETERMINED BY THIS HOUSE THIS REQUIRES A SAY FROM EVERY ZAMBIAN VOTE , THATS WHY IT MUST BE AMENDED BY A REFERENDUM ACCORDING TO PART 3 OF THE CONSTITUTION OF THIS COUNTRY! it’s requires my mother in Pambashe to vote weather she agrees with the thinking of Government or not”
In his Conclusion, Hon. Chitotela said the defamation of the President proposal is a good proposal but the office of the President ought to be protected and respected.
“African governance transcends from the Chiefdom and we know how kings and chiefs are treated in our chiefdoms were we are coming from, this is not to take away the peoples liberties, Opinions to criticize their leaders but we must also bare in mind that certain positions come with certain responsibilities”.