By Mwansa Kaumba
Former Home Affairs minister Stephen Kampyongo says the same Garry Nkombo, President Hakainde Hichilema was persecuting is the same one who used to speak on his behalf, together with Jack Mwiimbu, when he was incarcerated in police custody.
“Our president went to where he went (in Southern Province)and was speaking in his native Tonga that Garry Nkombo was coming to us saying we should imprison bakateka (him). (But) when he committed and offence and police arrested him it’s the same Garry Nkombo who was speaking and pleading on his behalf, together with Jack Mwiimbu,” Kampyongo said.
He said when Nkombo and Mwiimbu would go to them and asked for President Hichilema to be released, they would also call in the police and refer the matter to them as they were not the ones who arrested him, but the police.
He said going by the President’s arguments of thinking his opponents were using the police against him, they were now convinced that he was the one who sends the police to arrest his opponents.
“Is that a person you want to be a leader? (Former president Edgar) Lungu died without being accorded the opportunity to go for medical checkups, until he died in a foreign country. Would you say such a leader has a heart?” asked Kampyongo.
He also took a swipe at Kalulushi UPND candidate Mulenga Kampamba over her decision to defect to the ruling UPND.
Kampyongo said when Lungu was being “persecuted” by President Hichilema, they used to eat meals prepared by Kampamba in her home, wondering whether it was right for her to leave before Lungu’s remains were buried.
He said he was kneeling before NRPUP presidential candidate Brian Mundubile and his running-mate Makebi Zulu for the first time on behalf of the people, saying people had been cheated for too long and therefore had faith in them.
“This man who has kept people for five years is full of lies,” Kampyongo said.
He asked people if it was right for President Hichilema to refer to family men like Mundubile and Zulu as “boys.”
