Roan PF member of parliament Chishimba Kambwili yesterday failed to meet bail conditions and was forced to spend a night at Lusaka Central Prison (Chimbokaila).

And there was drama at the Lusaka Magistrates’ Court around 17:30 hours when Kambwili collapsed in the holding cell just after the Kasalanga arrived to pick inmates.

Meanwhile, Kambwili says President Edgar Lungu should know that he will not be Head of State for the rest of his life.

Yesterday, Lusaka magistrate Mwaka Mikalile granted Kambwili K10,000 cash bail with two working sureties bound at K100,000 in their own recognizance despite strong opposition from the state.

Magistrate Mikalile also ordered Kambwili, who pleaded not guilty to all 39 criminal charges, to handover his passport to the court.

However, around 17:00 hours, Kambwili was still in the Lusaka Magistrates’ Court holding cell as his bail was not finalized.

Later Kambwili was moved in his car to Chimbokaila, and the State stationed an ambulance at the prison entrance to attend to the ailing suspect.

In an audio shared by the National Democratic Congress media team, Kambwili lamented that the state was unreasonably trying to keep him in detention.

He charged that Home Affairs Minister Stephen Kampyongo had instructed relevant officers to run away from their offices to avoid finalizing his bail and warned that President Lungu’s days as Head of State were numbered.

“When I was briefly detained at Simon Mwansa Kapwepwe, they did not return my passport and one of the bail conditions is that I should hand over my passport to the court and two working sureties. Two members of parliament have come forth but since 11:00 hours, the ACC have refused to verify and endorse the sureties so that the court can proceed with bail. The Immigration Department has also confirmed that they are the ones that are having my passport but they have all run away from the office, they have been instructed by Kampyongo to run away from the offices and not release my passport so that I can go into detention. What kind of a country are we running and what kind of injustice is this? I want to appeal to President Edgar Lungu that please, ‘you swore to defend the Constitution of this country’, even the ministers, why should he instruct the ACC not to process my bail and why should he instruct the Immigration Department not to release my passport which is required at court?” asked Kambwili.

“Our lawyers have been at the ACC since bail was given, they spoke to the deputy immigration chief who promised that he has the passport and he would come to the office after a meeting with the Minister of Home Affairs. Since he had a meeting with the Minister of Home Affairs, he has switched off his phone, he has run away from his office. Equally the ACC are supposed to endorse on the two letters that have come from Parliament for the two sureties, they have also run away from the offices and refused to endorse on the document. This is an abrogation of the rule of law and refusing a court order with impunity. This is not the way we should run our country. President Edgar Lungu and Kampyongo, your days are numbered. You will not be President for the rest of your life. Let me suffer like this, despite being sick, to go into detention as you so wish. But I want to tell you that should anything happen to me, we shall hold you directly responsible and you will face the consequences.”

And UPND leader Hakainde Hichilema, who was at court to offer solidarity earlier, said Kambwili should have been granted police bond.

“On our colleague Hon Kambwili, he has been granted bail of which should have never been delayed. In fact, bond should have been issued to him the very day he was arrested. So that he could have just come to court from his house or at least from hospital. This is the way it should have been. This is long overdue and we hope the bail will be processed on time we get on with other things. There are lots of other things we need to deal with. The country is decaying. As I have said before there is no leadership in this country that’s why people are suffering. The bible is very clear, where there is no vision, no leadership, people suffer, and people are suffering. So we have lots of work to do to repair the damage caused to this country by the PF,” said HH.

Meanwhile, there was drama at the Lusaka Magistrates’ Court when Kambwili collapsed in his holding cell.

When news broke that the NDC leader had collapsed around 17:30, his supporters started demanding that he be taken to the hospital.

After a few minutes, some NDC cadres and Lusaka Province Youth chair Obvious Mwaliteta carried him to a black SUV where his wife and NDC Secretary General Mwenya Musenge were waiting.

They began to drive out of the court premises but police blocked the car for a few minutes before allowing them to drive him to Chimbokaila Correctional Facility just behind the Lusaka Magistrates’ Court.

There, an ambulance from the University Teaching Hospital was seen driving in and by press time, medical personnel were attending to Kambwili.