Kabimba, HH alliance

By Daily Revelation Editor

United Kwacha Alliance (UKA) interim chairman Sakwiba Sikota warned about the potential of  Economic Front (EF) leader Wynter Kabimba regretting the decision to join an alliance with the ruling UPND.

Sikota warned Kabimba of the dangers of engaging with UPND.

“The fact that Wynter Kabimba has chosen to engage with UPND is his democratic right, but he must be aware that he is walking a path that many have trodden before and regretted,” he said.

Sikota urged Kabimba to ask himself why people who had gone into alliances with UPND had left.

“For instance, president Kelvin Fube Bwalya, Saboi Imboela, Sean Tembo, Nason Musoni, and Ernest Mwansa all went down that path and later realised their mistake,” said Kabimba.

We will not delve into the arguments about whether Kabimba is right or even wrong in his announcement that his party has initiated alliance talks with the ruling UPND, as that is his democratic right to choose the people he wants to associate with.

However, our main concern is the lack of principles that mostly governs our politicians generally, from both ailes, the ruling and opposition parties. These are politicians who will say the most damning things about another party today, but before they have even finish uttering those damning things you will find them joining hands with the same political party they were saying bad things about. In the end you even begin to wonder whether they actually mean the criticisms and observations they make when talking about their political opponents.

The saddest part is that these are the politicians that have graced the political scene of this country for a long time, and by that standard alone, they stand a better chance of finding themselves holding the reigns of power from time to time in this country. For instance, there is ample material of what Kabimba used to say about the same UPND he has joined hands with today. And there is a lot the UPND themselves, including Hichilema said about Kabimba. And it’s not just them, but the whole political field actually that has become infected with this cancer. Our politicians have taken something which is supposed to be a noble career as something chosobelesa, something to play around with, without realising that the whole undertaking should be about engaging in robust principled debate on how to better serve the Zambian people.

However, while Kabimba is guilty of engaging in the same politics at play in this country, there is one element we feel he has which may not be too common in other politicians, in that he says things as they are. But that is one element which may not sit well, especially with politicians who have mastered the art of bootlicking the leader. And because leaders themselves have become accustomed to be puffed up by their followers, they don’t usually take kindly of a junior telling them to their faces that which they don’t want to hear.

Therefore, whatever the motivations in Kabimba joining hands with the UPND, and he says he is doing so in order to help them fight corruption – the same corruption he described as a witch-hunt targeted at the former leaders in the PF – we hope he shall realise tangible results from the same endeavour. After all, who would get upset with someone talking about joining efforts to fight corruption? We urge President Hakainde Hichilema to work closely with Kabimba to realise the purpose of that relationship.

We urge Kabimba to work with Hichilema to fight corruption wholly, not the corruption or perceived corruption focussed on those who served in the former administration, but the corruption arising from UPND, including the perception aspect of it actually. We hope this will be an effective alliance on that score, and that it will be different from the many other alliances we have seen emerging on the political scene from time immemorial, but end up dying soon thereafter because they were not based on a solid ideal.