Open letter to Chishimba Kambwili

Kambwili

Dear Mr. Kambwili,

The interview you had last night on ZNBC was painful to listen to (I listened to it online). I thought that the interview lacked substance and exhibited a lot of hate towards those you “think” do not agree with you. In the middle of the interview I decided to start counting how many times you were saying “under five politician” and within the span of ten minutes you mentioned that phrase eight times. Wow! You seem to have lots to say and yet you are actually saying nothing.

Allow me to engage you on your dangerous statement that people of Southern Province would never vote for Jesus Christ. You accused the whole people of Southern Province as being tribalists. We have heard that song before and sort of tired of it now. You speak as if Tongas only live in Southern Province. You speak as if you have not worked with them or gone to school with them. You talk about them as if they are a long lost tribe living somewhere in their own world. You speak as if none of your relatives or friends is married to a Tonga or have friends who are Tongas. Please do not divide us as a people. We love our country and love one another. We may not agree on whom we vote for but we agree on being Zambians.

Anyway, let us look at the numbers to compare if what you were shouting to the whole nation has any truth in it. Just to be fair, I picked four districts of comparable size, from PF and UPND strongholds, in voter registration and looked at the results in the last presidential election. Here are the official results from Electoral Commission of Zambia:

Mpika—EL (16,687) and HH (1,266)

Siavonga—EL (1,447) and HH (15,474)

Chipata—EL (26,043) and HH (9,310)

Livingstone—EL (8,352) and HH (19,125)

I don’t know about you Ba Kambwili there is nothing different in the voting pattern of the UPND stronghold to that of the PF stronghold. Take a look at the results in many other districts and you will find that the pattern is very similar. Of course, you chose to paint the people of Southern Province as tribal and yet you neglected to call the people of Eastern or Northern as tribal too.

Ba Kambwili, it’s very disappointing the kind of language you use. This is not the first or second or third or fourth or fifth time you have insulted the people of Southern Province. May I suggest that you focus on the issues that are faced by the people of Zambia. Zambians want to know how they are going to make ends meet, what is happening to the taxes they are paying or what the government is doing about their flooded homes and businesses. These are the issues you should be spending your time on.

Chilala Muhila