Africa-Press – Zambia. President Edgar Chagwa Lungu is the number one tribalist in Zambia, UPND Alliance partner and Zambia Must Prosper (ZMP) movement leader, Kelvin Fube Bwalya, has said.
Mr. Bwalya said the tribal crusade that is being spewed out in the Northern part of Zambia against the Tonga speaking people of Southern Province by Chishimba Kambwili and Godfrey Bwalya Mwamba is a political scheme engineered by President Lungu.
Speaking live on radio Mano in Kasama yesterday, Mr. Bwalya said President Lungu was the waste tribalist in present Zambia. Mr. Bwalya, who is popularly known as KBF said Mr. Kambwili is a caged messenger, unleashed to win the Bemba vote for Mr. Lungu using tribalism against UPND leader Hakainde Hichilema and the people of Southern Province.
“I came to know about President Lungu’s tribal traits when I was the Patriotic Front (PF) elections committee vice chairperson.
President Lungu used to write letters to the committee, stopping the distribution of campaign materials in Southern, Western and North- Western Provinces because the three provinces were supporting a Tonga speaking presidential candidate,” Mr. Bwalya revealed.
Mr. Bwalya further alleged that President Lungu, an Easterner, was using Bemba speaking individuals to wage a political tribal war against the Tonga speaking people, a scheme he described as dangerous for the country.
He warned that President’s Lungu’s tribal crusade against the Tonga speaking people could plunge the country into a tribal conflict as seen other countries.
He appealed to Zambians across the country vote for the UPND Alliance presidential candidate in order to stop the tribalism which Mr. Lungu is perpetuating.
“When I realised that President Lungu had resorted to promoting tribalism as a strategy to win this election, I embarked on a mission to speak with my colleagues in other political parties with a view to save our country from the fast -emerging tribal divisions.
“I spoke to Mr. Felix Mutati, Dr. Ernest Mwansa, Mr. Kaluba Simuyemba, Harry Kalaba, among others, to see how best we can bring the country together as one Zambia one nation and as espoused by our first Republican President Dr. Kenneth Kaunda,” said Mr. Bwalya
“This tribal crusade that Mr. Kambwili has embarked on is President Lungu’s programme to alienate the Tonga speaking people from participating in the political governance of Zambia ” he said. Mr. Bwalya feared that should President Lungu be allowed to win the Thursday election, Zambia would plunge into tribal anarchy.
He said Chishimba Kambwili was President Lungu’s project to spew tribal hate against the Tongas, specifically Mr. Hichilema. He said the purpose of the UPND Alliance and the Zambia We Want (ZWW) working together was to unite the country across tribal lines.
Mr. Bwalya defended Mr. Hakainde Hichilema against all forms of tribal politics, noting that the UPND Alliance presidential candidate had followers in all the 10 provinces of Zambia. He said Bemba speaking people were the majority in the UPND national management committee, unlike President Lungu’s central committee which was dominated by people from Eastern and northern regions.
He appealed to all Zambians to embrace one another regardless of where they hail from in order to promote unit. Later in the day, Mr. Bwalya and his entourage joined UPND Alliance parliamentary candidate for Lukashya constituency, Davies Mulenga, in the distribution of face masks. Thousands of Lukashya residents scrambled to catch a glimpse of the outspoken politician.
