UPND Whip Gary Nkombo and Roan PF member of parliament want to be joined as interested parties in a case in which some Lusaka residents are seeking Judicial Review over the Speaker’s decision to entertain the impeachment motion in the Lusaka High Court.

Robert Chabinga and Henry Mulenga, who are being represented by Hobday Kabwe and Company, Lewis Mosho of Lewis Nathan Advocates and Kanja Mpundu of Palan and George Advocates, have challenged the Speaker’s decision to entertain the impeachment motion in the Lusaka High Court, arguing that it is unreasonable, procedurally improper and illegal.

Judge Bobo Banda granted the applicants leave to apply for judicial review on April 4, which is acting as a stay of the decision of the Speaker of the National Assembly to table the motion to impeach President Edgar Lungu.

The applicants argued that the impeachment motion dealt with grounds which were still determined in the courts of law and was therefore sub judice.

In an Affidavit in Support of Summons for Joinder filed Tuesday, Nkombo and Kambwili stated that as mover and seconder of the motion, respectively, they were interested parties as any decision made by the court would affect them.

” Such interest includes being allowed to defend any allegations as to the competence or otherwise of the motion, its subject matter and its content which shall inevitably be among the issues for determination in the substantive proceedings before your ladyship. We stand to be affected by the outcome of these proceedings in view of the possibility that they may result in the decision of the Speaker of the National Assembly to declare that the motion is properly before the House being quashed,” Nkombo and Kambwili stated.

“In the premises we are desirous to be joined to the proceedings.”

Some of the alleged constitutional breaches cited in the impeachment motion are that President Lungu violated the Constitution when he failed to hand over power to the Speaker of the National Assembly when the presidential petition was filed.

Other charges are that President Lungu violated the Constitution when he threatened Constitutional Court judges who are handling his 2021 eligibility case.