POLICE spokesperson Esther Mwaata Katongo says NDC leader Chishimba Kambwili’s wife Carol has been released but his daughter, Chanda, is still in custody, charged with assault.

And Carol has wondered why PF isn’t using the ballot to fight political battles instead of intimidating people with state machinery.

Meanwhile, Carol has lamented that her daughter has gone on a hunger strike because she does not understand why male police officers manhandled and left her bruised.

On Tuesday, police in Lusaka picked Carol and Chanda at the Lusaka Magistrates’ Court on allegations that the two misconducted themselves as officers were performing their duties.

Updating journalists, Wednesday, Katongo said Carol and two others had been released after paying an admission of guilt fine while her daughter was still in custody.

“Carol Kambwili aged 48 who was arrested for Conduct Likely to Cause the Breach of Peace at the Lusaka’s Magistrate Court yesterday and two others identified as Patricia Situmbeko age not known and Frank Chiona whose age is not known, arrested for misconduct at Kabwata Police Station have been released after they paid Admission of Guilt fine,” Katongo said.

“Chanda Kambwili, daughter of Dr Kambwili, is charged with Assault contrary to section 250 (e). She is detained in police custody.”

In a seperate interview, Carol’s lawyer Christopher Mundia said police had refused to grant Chanda bond.

“It is just the wife who has been released and not the daughter. It is just the same promises that they will give her bond but nothing is happening. The wife was charged with conduct likely to cause the breach of peace so she paid that fine and the case is over. The daughter was charged with assault,” said Mundia

And narrating her ordeal on Diamond TV, Carol lamented that male police officers roughed her up and left her daughter bruised.

“Yesterday, I arrived at court and while I was at court, my daughter phoned me that ‘I have been refused to enter’. So I went to the gate to go and ask the one who was in charge. So I asked the person to tell me the person in charge and I was directed to him. I actually pleaded with him if he can allow my daughter to come into court so that we can hear the case. He totally refused. And I asked him why because we are the immediate family and we really need to be there to know what is happening to my husband and to their father. And then he said ‘oh you are here to cause trouble.’ I was actually manhandled, and when he did that, I walked away. So when I was walking towards the car, I just saw a police officer manhandling my daughter and then I went in front of the police officer and I said why are you doing this?’ and he said ‘why are you here, we told you not to be here!’ I told him but you told me to go and we are going. But then they started kicking my daughter, grabbing her and they actually removed her clothes. That is when I was so upset and I said this is uncalled for, you should not be doing this. What could I have done as a mother and a woman at that point but to protect my daughter? That is what I did,” Carol said.

“As I was doing that, policemen came and manhandled me, naked, actually throwing me into the police car. I was defenseless, my daughter was defenseless and on top of that, they lied that I slapped a police officer. The videos are there. Did they see me slapping any officer? No. I was fighting for my rights to go into court to listen to what the judge was going to say about my husband’s case. As if this was not enough, they get my daughter, trampled on her, she is so bruised everywhere. They can even allow her to have medical attention, they didn’t even allow me to have my medicine.”

She said there was no social distancing in the “smelly cell” in which they spent the night.

“They took me to that police cell, there was no social distancing, it was dirty, it was smelly, they didn’t care. They just bundled us in there and they didn’t want to listen to us, to hear what we have to say. And we were not told anything, each time they called us, a lot of police men in the room to interrogate us without our lawyers, I think that was wrong, I think we have been intimidated enough. If they are fighting in politics, I am not a politician, my daughter is not a politician, why should they involve me in their fight? I did not go there to fight anyone, all I want there for was to hear what would happen to my husband,” she lamented.

She said political battles should be fought through the ballot.

“It is not easy having the father of the house, a husband in incarceration and you don’t even know what offence he has done, this should stop. Police brutality should stop. I haven’t even heard anyone…the First Lady is a woman like me, the Vice-President has not said anything, today it is me, tomorrow it will be somebody else. I am appealing to well-meaning women to stand up and say ‘we are choking, we can’t breathe with this police brutality.’ And let us say no to this. If you cannot fight in the ballot box, why intimidate people, using state machinery?” she asked.

“To the women police officers, they were in the forefront of manhandling me, pushing me around, how can you do this to a fellow woman?”

She wondered on whose instruction the police officers were acting.

“Everyone you ask, they are saying ‘we are working under instruction’. Who is instructing them? Who is that person who is heartless instructing the police to work against their code of conduct? I can only say to that person who is instructing those police officers to be brutal to innocent people to say he is a coward. Instructing police to beat up women who are defenseless. My husband has been a politician for a long time and when he was in PF, if he was not allowed to campaign and talk, would the PF be in power? No! They came in the night accusing us of having a phone and pushed us around. And took the blankets away from us to say this is not your home, you cannot sleep like you are at home. This is a police cell, you should suffer today’ whoever is instructing the police to act in such a way has no heart. I cannot wish him what happened to us because I am human,” Carol said.

When asked how Kambwili was doing, Carol said his blood pressure was under control.

“Well, he felt much better that I was released but he is worried for the daughter. At this point, my daughter is not eating, she is not drinking because she cannot understand what really happened. How can the police lie that she assaulted a police officer? A young girl slapping an armed officer? Honestly, I can’t understand. He is okay, he is a strong man. If they want to break him, they are not God. We are cooking for him and we are taking for him the right diet. He has got his tablets, he has his insulin, the blood pressure is under control,” said Carol.