Mwembeshi independent member of parliament Machila Jamba says he will vote along with the opposition UPND to impeach President Edgar Lungu if the grounds are reasonable enough.

In an interview with News Diggers! Jamba said he would however analyse the impeachment grounds before making the decision.

He warned the PF against intimidating the opposition UPND, saying it was their constitutional right to move a motion of impeachment if the Head of State abrogated the supreme law of the land.

Jamba also challenged the UPND to stop debating the impeachment motion from anthills but allow members of parliament to weigh its merits.

“I have heard a lot of sentiments with regards to the impeachment motion. Some are saying it shouldn’t come, it’s irrelevant then some are saying they are going to impeach him. But you know that’s a constitutional right, just like anyone can stand up today and say ‘I am going to stand as President’ the question is, are you sure you are going to win or you just want to make a name? It’s constitutional that the UPND may want to bring a motion for the President but do they have the grounds of impeachment or is it just something which is there for recording purposes?” he wondered.

“But if there are some people who are thinking that it’s not worthy to impeach him, someone should not say that the President shouldn’t be impeached or that someone should not bring a motion. So if the UPND are bringing that motion, we shall await to hear the merits and demerits of it and if it has got merits, then we will look into it and then vote with them but if it has got no merit, there is no need to go ahead and vote with them or impeach the President.”

He added: “The law says that a President can be impeached by Parliament, so if he can be impeached and someone says no me I want to impeach the President because I have got grounds, let them do so because it is their constitutional right to bring that allegation. If someone says Jamba has abrogated the law, they have got to take me to court and the courts of law will prove to say, actually he is guilty. That is how it’s done.”

Jamba encouraged the UPND not to be discouraged by sentiments coming from State House press aide Amos Chanda who argued recently that the impeachment motion would not succeed.

“If the UPND have got ground, let them not fear. Let them bring those things so that we can look at them. If what they are bringing is trash, if nothing makes sense then there is nothing to talk about and that means it will fall. But if they have something, we need to look at it. The problem sometimes here in Zambia is that we want to fear for nothing. Let them bring it to parliament, then we shall discuss it that’s why we are there. Those people at State House are not members of parliament, they can say whatever they want. But parliament works independently. We should differentiate, there is parliament which is the legislator, we’ve got also the executive and there is also the judiciary. So if someone is speaking from his own point of view, those are his personal views,” said

“If President Lungu has abrogated the constitution and it warrants him to be impeached, then we shall vote for that. I want to see a written dossier. When the President has abused his authority, we want to see a written dossier of what he has abused and if he has really abused, to what extent has he abused. So all those things are supposed to be tabulated so that when we start arguing we can say, yes on this one he abused the Constitution by actually taking this one into this, this one did this and that. So at that level, we can be able to talk. We want to see the document and it must be proven beyond reasonable doubt that this is what he did. As you know, me I am an independent member of parliament, I don’t have any fear I just stand by what the constitution says in order to do the right thing at the correct time.”