By Merlyn Mwanza
Zambezi East member of parliament Brian Kambita has accused North Western Province minister Robert Lihefu of sharing the construction of feeder roads between his Manyinga constituency and Kabombo, while leaving out the other districts in the province, warning that he is not ready to be used as a rubber stamp.
And Petauke-Central member of parliament Emmanuel Banda questioned why the administration mentioned only about works in North-Western province while leaving out all the many critical roads that require attention in Eastern Province, but was curtailed by Speaker Nelly Mutti just as she curtailed Pambashe member of parliament Ronald Chitotela when he attempted to raise issues about Luapula
Rising to contribute to the ministerial statement delivered by Infrastructure minister Charles Milupi who talked about all the major roads the government is embarking on in North Western Province, Kambita said the speech by Milupi did not inspire any confidence that they will have any solution, saying all he was getting was that the whole undertaking would be through the PPP approved system which will require feasibility studies in order to be effectualised.
He further accused Lihefu of sharing works on the feeder roads between his constituency and Kabombo, while leaving out the other North Western Province districts against what they had all agreed upon.
“We should not come here to be used as rubber stamp. North Western Province delivered the vote,” said Kambita.
Reinforcing that position, another UPND member of parliament from the Province Elliot Kamondo said there was a mention about roads being worked on in Manyinga and Kabompo but wondered when the roads in areas like Mufumbwe and Kasempa would be worked on.
Chitotela’s efforts to contribute to the debate were curtailed by Mutti saying she was not going to entertain debate that seeks to divide the country on regional lines.
In the brief remarks Chitotela made before he was curtailed, he mentioned that Luapula was the poorest province according to estimates, seemingly attempting to disagree with the position raised by Milupi before he was curtailed by Mutti.
But making his contribution which was also curtailed by Mutti, Banda said Milupi had mentioned all these roads in North Western Province, some of which were even connecting into Central Province yet there was no mention of any works in places like Eastern Province which equally required urgent attention such as the Vubwi-Chipata road among the other critical ones.
