KANYAMA BY-ELECTION-politicians should be noble

BY RICHARD MULONGA
ALL eyes are now on the Kanyama parliamentary seat that fell vacent after the demise of Henry Mtonga late last year.
Kanyama is a shanty suburb in the heart of Lusaka, Zambia’s capital city. Although this place is a shanty, it commands large political influence on Zambia’s landscape.
All political parties vie for this seat. It has once been a hot-bed for political violence, in which some people has lost some vital body parts and others have earned themselves indelible scars. Others have even died.
This constituency is popular for several reasons such as the proximity to the central trading district and that it just holds many vocal people from the political parties here.
Now, the run for Kanyama has once again heightened. This Time around, the ruling Multiparty Democracy (MMD) and opposition Patrotic Front, United Party for National Development (UPND) and All People’s Congress Party (APC) who are fielding their president Ken Ngondo are jostling for the seat.

The ugly head of violence has already made an appearance in Kanyama. This was during the nominations for the seat recently.

The disturbances started when cadres from the MMD started pouring vulgar language on theie opposition counterparts, who retaliated with an equal amount of force (insults).
The people of Zambia, the police, and all interested stakeholders expect violence in Kanyama during the campaign trails.
It is good that the political parties have promised to do their activities violence-free. But we shall watch this space and hold them accountable at the end of it all because those promises were being made for the umpteenth time. These people called politicians need to be reminded that five years of power should never destroy a lifetime of togetherness. They should not influence people into judging and segregating each other on the basis of political affiliation.
The status quo is that the players in the Kanyama seat are far much apart just like guns and roses, which are ready to live with.
Set for February 21, 2008, the campaign trails are getting hot in Kanyama.

There are many social economic challenges that the people of Kanyama are facing. The politicians need to be reminded about the floods that have engulfed the place, these tongue twisters need to be told about the state of road and bridge infrastructure. They also need to visit the clinics and see how acute the shortage of drugs has become. I am sure they have seen how class attendance among school going-children has reached lowest ebb because they used some schools to plot their political gimmicks. The school children cannot go for classes because their parents and guardians are not able to pay fees or simply because the bridges have collapsed, the roads have been washed away or they school place is flooded. In some places, there are no places for classes because the rooms are sheltering flood victims.

It is traditional in Zambia that when there is such a short political event, large amounts of resources from the national treasury are spent. Some critics like using the word “wasted” instead of “spent”. Even in Kanyama, history would simply repeat itself and the critics would mention that “W” word again.
The resources being spent on Kanyama elections could spell a great deal of development if focused on mending the socio-economic life of the constituency.
This statement is not only targeted at the party in government. Even opposition political parties are spending so much. Those resources they are ‘wasting’ on the election campaigns could be of great help in Kanyama. Why do politicians turn into arm-chair critic when they are in the opposition? Even opposition politicians could contribute to helping the people of Kanyama.
The onus is on the people of Kanyama to elect the best candidate who would represent them able up there at Manda Hill (hill where Zambia’s national assembly stands). However, it is the hope of every rightful thinking Zambian that there shall be political maturity in Kanyama and violence shall be absent.