By Staff Reporter
Former prison inmate Mumbi Phiri says she expects her fellow former inmate President Hakainde Hichilema to be in the forefront of supporting the NGO she will be launching which will be looking into the plight of female prisoners among several other aspects.
Speaking with Daily Revelation, Phiri said she would welcome any help from the President in helping out the causes she will be advancing.
She said she is looking forward to the registration of her NGO, saying it will be looking into the welfare of children, women and the sick in prison, and hopes to get the funding from well wishers for which she has already reached out to her connections outside the country after having served as a former diplomat.
“He’s (President Hichilema) a former inmate. In fact I was very disappointed. Are you aware that every Christmas there are some inmates who are supposed to be released from prison on parole. Last year no one came out. How a former inmate can forget such an important thing only God knows,” the former PF deputy secretary general said. “And having himself spent 229 days in prison I expect him to be in the forefront to support this NGO. Because he didn’t think about it and yet he is also from there. Me I am from there and I am thinking of this and he knows the suffering of the prisoners there. He is most welcome I am not looking at who is contributing. I am looking at how that contribution can go towards helping the inmates.”
Phiri bemonaed that there are people in prison whose cases have been committed to the High Court yet a long time has passed without having their cases heard.
She said even at police posts, those accused were spending longer periods in cells than is warranted.
Phiri said this was the more reason why she is starting an NGO to look into such problems, including engaging lawyers to help women who lack legal representation to help them negotiate with lawyers at a minimal fee to get legal representation.
She said in her family there are lawyers and some of her children are medical doctors who could help in visiting prisons to attend to the sick, while she herself trained in early childhood education and would start up schools to help children of those who have been incarcerated.
“So if the President came to donate K500 or even K50 it will be welcome because he’s contributing to something which he was in. A situation he was in before. And he understands what I am talking about,” Phiri said
She also said there were other Zambians of goodwill too who were trying to volunteer their efforts.
Phiri said some children are born in prison and they have nothing to do hence the initiatives in terms of introducing early childhood education.
She said she would just be supplementing government efforts and she does not mind working with those in the UPND administration if they see sense in what she will be embarking on.
Phiri said from her experiences in custody, she noticed that the cells for women and men were made different, where on the female section there was no separation as women and juveniles were bundled together in the same room, but on the male section there was a section specifically for juveniles, remandees, inmates and the sick male in mates.
“You can imagine when I was in Mongu we had sick women who were able to sleep with everybody, even pregnant women. And when they went into labour everybody knew and were taken out at whatever point they had gone into labour,” said Phiri. “We had one female inmate who developed toberculosis. She was never isolated. She started her treatment with everybody.”
