FORMER Kasama Central PF member of parliament Kelvin Sampa has joined the UPND, saying the ruling party is speaking his language.

Speaking in Kasama, Sampa, who was received by Vice-President Mutale Nalumango and UPND national chairperson Stephen Katuka, said the UPND had a heart for the people.

“Let me borrow the words of my elder brother ileisula baletamba! Your honour the Vice President, I stand before you here in Kasama declaring my joining of the United Party for National Development. The party that has the heart for the people of this country. Madam Vice President, you can see the majority of the people here are the youths and the women. We need to ensure that we empower all these people. My desire is to make sure that your honour, you sleep comfortably and we work for you, so that we can help our young people and our mothers. Where they don’t understand, we facilitate for them to learn. I don’t want to say much, I also want to introduce the team that I have come with,” he said.

And in an interview, Sampa, who was also PF national youth chairman, said he had resigned from the former ruling party because he was accused of things he never did.

“First and foremost, I resigned from PF [a] long time and that was basically towards my principles. I advocated for peace, none violence, but I was chastised for doing that. I was accused of so many things that I never did. So I think for me that was not a correct fora for me to use in order to support the people that put me in that office. If they (PF) never listened then what new things are they going to bring out?” he wondered.

Sampa said he had joined the UPND because they had brought an end to violence and cadresim.

“So far with the way the UPND has come out, they are speaking my language and my work. So for me I think we are flowing exactly with what I preached and I wanted to practice. [This] is exactly what these guys are doing. I mean look at the country now, it is quiet, no cadresim nonsense, where even the police had no authority of power. So, I think the path that the new party has taken, is what actually my heart is calling for. I want to be remembered as somebody that contributed greatly to my country because of being upright and honest,” said Sampa.

“So far so good with what the UPND have done, free education. Everything can’t happen in one day, that is a lie. There will be certain things that will be pressing towards the country which is normal, because those things are influenced by global markets or global happenings. So it is not everything that is going to be achieved immediately, but you can see that these people are trying.”