Where did Prime Minister KK live?
I NEVER had even the slightest of ideas about the answer to this question until I met and got to work with Zambia’s first president Kenneth Kaunda’s daughter Cheswa.
I worked with Cheswa Kaunda Silwizya at Cabinet Office in Lusaka from 2015 to 2016.
Cheswa and twin-brother Kambarage were Dr Kaunda’s last-born children.
They were born in February 1964 while Dr Kaunda was prime minister of Northern Rhodesia.
When I was transferred from the Office of the Fourth President to Cabinet Office, I found that I would share a small office with Cheswa and another officer.
That officer was the actual owner of the office which also had two chairs for visitors.
Those were the chairs Cheswa and I had to occupy.
Cheswa, too, had been transferred to Cabinet Office from the Office of the First President where she used to be a protocol officer.
During the few months I worked with Cheswa, I came to learn a lot about the Kaunda family.
Much of the information is still undocumented, which is why I am doing my bit to include it in a book project that has been in the pipeline for eight years.
One morning in February 2016, Cheswa walked into our office with pieces of cake.
The previous day had been Cheswa’s birthday anniversary and she was generous enough to share a part of her birthday cake with us.
Oh, how we did justice to the cake!
That was the time I learnt about where Cheswa and Kambarage were born.
It was neither in Chilenje nor at State House.
They were born at a house Dr Kaunda lived in as minister of local government and social welfare and, later, prime minister.
Curiously, no one talks about this important and historical house.
It has generally, and erroneously, been believed that when Dr Kaunda left Chilenje, he moved to State House.
That is not true.
Dr Kaunda left Chilenje in December 1962 and moved to a house not too far from State House.
He remained there until a month before Zambia attained political independence in October 1964.
This is one of the many things I learnt from Cheswa about the Kaundas, which will form part of my book project.
As I sent part of my manuscript to retired politician and diplomat Vernon Johnson Mwaanga for proof-reading some time last year, the Kaunda residence was one of the issues we discussed.
Dr Mwaanga confirmed what Cheswa had told me.
There is so much missing in our history books.
On my part, I have picked quite a number of interesting pieces of undocumented information which I am putting together into one book.
It is not the typical autobiography readers are used to; it is, rather, a story of my life told in an unorthodox manner.
It includes many other stories like where
Prime Minister Kaunda lived and members of his first cabinet lived.
By Kennedy Limwanya
Kalemba