PF deputy secretary general Mumbi Phiri says if those being demonised by Chishimba Kambwili wanted to politics, they could accuse him of being rich because his children make money by posting pornographic pictures on the internet.
And Phiri has advised all those being accused of corruption by Kambwili to take the matters to court so that the NDC leader can prove his accusations against them.
Commenting on the recent incident where Kambwili recorded a conversation with Minister of Home Affairs Stephen Kampyongo, Phiri charged that the NDC leader’s politics were about bitterness and destroying families.
“Honourable Kambwili has a habit of recording people, this is not the first time we have heard him recording somebody. But the people who are making him behave the way he’s behaving, its those people who entertain him when he calls them. Honourable Kambwili is on a route of destruction, he’s not only trying to destroy individuals but he’s also after destroying families. A very good example is myself, why should he go to a television station and start talking about Mumbi Phiri with no proof that I am a drug addict? I have been waiting for him to bring DEC. As if that is not enough, honourable Kambwili knows that the place which he’s claiming that it’s the Chinese who bought for me, he has been there before, he has been to my house,” Phiri said.
“Honestly, how can a normal person go on television and start saying ‘honourable Davies Mwila’s children only reach grade nine? The child he was talking about has a disability, it’s not a choice of honourable Davies Mwila or his wife, it’s the wish of God that that child was born like that. A normal person knows that any person can suffer an accident at any time and become lame. So honourable Kambwili’s politics is not just about fighting us his fellow politicians, he’s bringing our families in.”
Phiri said even the people Kambwili was attacking knew about the skeletons in his closet but they were too civil to bring them into their political debates.
“But him has forgotten… the English say ‘don’t throw stones if you live in a glass house’, he has forgotten that we also know, even if he claims that he has money and he pays £13,000 for his children every month. What type of children are they? The children who the whole Zambia has seen sending nude pictures on internet. How can he feel if we start talking about his children?” she asked.
“If we were as dull as he is, when he was boasting to say ‘I can go to England for breakfast and come back to Zambia and have supper’, we can say, because his children are sending those porn pictures we saw on internet, he can afford because they are giving him that money. So what I have always said is abaletumpika Kambwili, it’s those people who when he tells them ‘you are a thief’, they are watching. Me I have written to him through my lawyers, my lawyers wrote to him on Friday and he’s been given five days ultimatum to apologise and retract what he said. Failure to which, I am taking him to the High Court. Others may ignore him but if a lie is repeated, people slowly accept it as the truth.”
Phiri, who has since sued the Roan PF member of parliament for defamation, said it was ridiculous for Kambwili to accuse her of corruption when she had worked so hard for everything she owned.
“He claims to have been buying toilet tissue for me, but me I was living in my personal house in Suningdale. He was coming to the farm where am staying, from the time we were together in Parliament. So how can he claim that my house was built by the Chinese when he knows very well that I was a member pf parliament from 2006 to 2011. At the end of that, I was paid gratuity, which I could use to do anything. He also knows very well that I went into diplomatic service. When I was Zambian High Commissioner [to Kenya], I had two salaries. I had a Zambian salary of over K7,000 and I was getting an allowance of over $10,000 plus. When I came back from diplomatic service, I never came back with cars because I believe in building. So honourable Kambwili just wants to destroy families with his false accusations,” she said.
“I don’t want a situation where if I dropped dead today, my children and grandchildren will never be able to move freely. I am a public figure and people would always point to my grandchildren saying ‘their grandmother was corrupt, the house she lived in aah. So for me, I have worked hard and I will not allow anybody to destroy my name, especially not by a person who claims to be rich and yet he came to Parliament with no house. He has built through Parliament, me I came to Parliament while living in my own house.”
And Phiri encouraged others who had been accused of corruption by Kambwili to sue him.
“So I am encouraging all those he’s accusing [of corruption], take him to court so that he can prove himself. Don’t ignore him because his destruction is not just targeting us the politicians, he wants to destroy our families,” said Phiri.
“Kambwili alayumfwa (he boasts), and yet we have his child’s nakedness on internet. If it was another person’s child who did that nga tatunwa na menshi (that person would not have been drinking water). All of us we have pictures of that child but we cannot go and start reposting them even though she posted them on her own. But him because he doesn’t think, he can even attack his friends’ children, destroying families. This is uncalled for.”