President Edgar Lungu has asked the residents of Kasanengwa to keep their faith in the Patriotic Front saying it hasn’t been in power long enough to deliver all its promises.

Meanwhile, President Lungu has warned citizens to desist engaging in political violence saying it does not make sense for political party sympathisers to be fighting when their leaders are living in harmony back in Lusaka.

Speaking in Kasanengwa’s Chiparamba ward where he went to drum up support for Seniso Banda yesterday, President Lungu likened the PF to a child that was still learning to walk.

The Head of State also asked the residents to vote for Banda because it would be hard to work with an opposition MP.

“I beg you to consider giving us Sensio Banda in order to continue working on what Victoria Kalima left, if you give me any other candidate as member of parliament, I will find it very difficult to work with him. The next thing which is very important is to know that those [other] political parties don’t want to work with the ruling party. So don’t gamble, I have said this because I know that we are in a hurry to develop this constituency, especially here where we are in Chiparamba area. We made Kasenegwa a district because we wanted you to be getting what is rightfully yours from the government and not through Chipata district. I know there are those people who think PF is not bringing development at a fast enough pace but let me tell you that we’ve only been in power from 2011 but what we have done can be seen already. I have only been for three years plus but you can see what we are doing,” President Lungu said.

“You can compare with our friends in MMD without disrespecting them, they were there for 20 years but you see what they did in 20 years, you can also compare to the many years of UNIP and what they did but compare the 27 years to the few years that PF has been in power. You must remember those of you that have been lucky to have children, when a child is born it doesn’t start crawling immediately it’s born no, it starts sitting by it’s own and standing much later until they start walking by themselves. So that is exactly where we are as PF, so please I am begging you give us space to work and bring development to our people.”

And President Lungu promised that farming inputs would be delivered on time this year.

“I know people who are coming here think we don’t know what is going on, we are also farmers by the way. We had a bumper harvest the other year, the only thing we cannot do is to bring the rains when God hasn’t allowed it to come. My duty is to ensure that fertiliser and seed are here in good time and after I have done all that then I should fall on my knees and pray that the Almighty gives us rains. But you’ve heard people say when the price of copper goes up they will say it’s Edgar but when the prices fall they don’t acknowledge, that’s how bad these people are. So don’t listen to them they don’t mean well for the Zambian people. But for those of us who care, we don’t need to do what they do, we just want to continue working for the people of Zambia. I will come through in weeks to come to ensure that all the farming inputs are in place. I will make sure that the e-voucher system is in place so that we are able to access all the farming inputs. That’s my job and also to pray that rain comes on time. That’s all I can do because I am only human,” President Lungu said.

Meanwhile, President Lungu called for non violent campaigns in Kasengewa.

“I want to advise my colleagues [in the opposition] that we have a job to do for all these people here. And let’s vote peacefully, if we fight we are just injuring ourselves. Edgar Lungu is in Lusaka drinking tea, HH is in Lusaka drinking coffee, Chishimba Kambwili is somewhere else drinking milk… eh why are you fighting? People in Parliament do drink tea together, these MPs from UNIP, MMD, UPND, PF they drink tea together so why should allow your children to be fighting for politics? After all, the nature of our politics in Zambia now is nomadic, you can move from one political party to another to another until you find your success. So I ask you to respect life and property and stay away from politics, we only have one Zambia one nation,” he said.

President Lungu said he was disappointed that the residents were scrutinizing Banda’s tribal heritage.

“First we have to know, what does ‘one Zambia, one Nation’ mean? All of us here are responding very well when somebody says ‘one Zambia’ but do we know what that means? I am asking this because I am very disapointed to hear that the campaigns here are centred on whether Sensio Banda is Ngoni or Chewa. But it’s not important whether Sensio Banda is Ngoni or Chewa because PF has got no tribe. If PF was tribal, I wouldn’t be President myself because [Michael Sata] was not Nsenga but I am Nsenga and himself was from somewhere in Mpika. But for you here in Chiparanga you want to be asking whether Sensio Banda is Ngoni or Chewa, my heart bleeds for you people. What should concern you is whether Sensio Banda will deliver effectively as a member of parliament, not whether he’s Chewa or Ngoni,” said President Lungu.

“I didn’t know what tribe the late Victoria Kalima was, I didn’t know but I knew she was an effective representative and that’s why we adopted her in 2016 and that’s why you voted for her. You are not going to vote for Sensio Banda because he belongs to PF or because as President I come from here, no! You are going to vote for Sensio Banda because he’s going to work with the party which is delivering. You gave us more than 20 names of potential candidates to choose from and the party settled for Sensio Banda because we thought he was the best candidate for this time around. I was sure and we are sure in PF that Sensio Banda will not let you down, he will deliver on behalf of the people Kasenengwa constituency. As a member of parliament in PF I will make sure that I supervise him until he delivers, is he fails I will deal with him. I cannot say the same thing about the other candidates because I don’t know them.”