By Davis Mataka
UPND Alliance Parliamentary candidate for the Kaumbwe constituency by elections Esnart Sakala is confident that she will scoop the polls slated for Thursday.
Speaking in an interview in Petauke yesterday, Ms Sakala who hails from the area said the people of Kaumbwe in Petauke were poised to vote for the UPND Alliance to forster development which has eluded them for the past few years.
She said the people of the area had embraced development and change and were ready to vote for her as an agent of progress.
She promised to turn the constituency into the food basket it was before the PF assumed leadership of the country ten years ago.
The seat fell vacant after the incumbent candidate UPND Alliance candidate passed away just before the August 12th 2021 general elections.
Ms Sakala revealed that It was disheartening to note that Kaumbwe had become the poorest constituency in the country surpassing the desolate Shangombo district in the Western province, not because of laziness of the people, but due to neglence by the previous PF government.
She said that in this day and age, the natives of Kaumbwe were in the dryer months of the year still subjected to sharing ponds for water with their animals for drinking and domestic use.
Ms Sakala said once elected as Member of Parliament, she will help uplift the quality of life for the area with one of her first priorities being to lobby for the construction of dams in the area to ease the water shortage and to ensure that electricity is made accessible to the people of Kaumbwe.
“One of the challenges of the areas that gave me the zeal to contest the position is the high poverty rate and particularly the lack of water for both domestic use for the people and their animals,
“It is dehumanizing that people are forced to share drinking ponds with cattle, and in the dryer months, the animals stray into neighbouring Mozambique in search of water and are stolen there,” she said.
Ms Sakala also bemoaned the lack of electricity for the locals saying the only power line in the area provides power to the palace and a few surrounding houses.
According to Ms Sakala, there is only one secondary school worth its name because the few other secondary schools in the area were being manned by primary school teachers, a situation which has disadvantaged especially the girl children.
Kaumbwe constituency has five wards namely, Kaumbwe, Lusinde, Manjanzi, Manyane and Kanyanga with approximately 30,500 registered voters.
Other parties contesting the seat are the PF and the Socialist party.
UPND Alliance Media Team.
