Aspiring PF Lusaka Provincial Kennedy Kamba says Bowman Lusambo should respect the will of the people and rally behind newly-elected Copperbelt PF Provincial chair Nathan Chanda to avoid divisions.
And Kamba says while others want to assume the provincial chairmanship for self interests, his aim is to organize the party.
In an interview, Kamba advised Lusambo to respect the will of the people when he was asked whether he shared the latter’s view that those elected as provincial chairmen should not hold parliamentary or local government positions as that would have divided attention.
“The people of Copperbelt have decided, the will of the delegates in the Copperbelt Province has prevailed. That is what the people of Copperbelt want. Even if I can have another view, but the will of the people should prevail. They strongly feel that Nathan Chanda can lead them as the provincial chairman of Copperbelt and for that reason we have to congratulate him and give him all the maximum support so that he can organize and mobilize the party in Copperbelt Province,” Kamba said.
“That is his (Bowman Lusambo) own view but that doesn’t mean that those views are for the majority. In democracy, majority wins. What my colleague Bowman Lusambo should do is to rally behind Nathan Chanda and support him so that there are no divisions in Copperbelt. And I am sure that my colleague is coming from the youth wing, he is the former Provincial youth chairman, he has been there for quite some time, he has been in the rural districts of Copperbelt. So what we need to do as a party in Copperbelt is we have to support the leadership which has been put in place so that our colleagues in Copperbelt can achieve their main objective. And above all, the will of the people has prevailed in Copperbelt.”
And Kamba said he was not vying for the Lusaka PF chairmanship for selfish reasons.
“Mine is different from others, I have never aspired as a member of parliament, I have never aspired as a councillor , I have never aspired to become a mayor in any of Lusaka district. Mine has been to organize the party whilst others it is self interest. Others are former PS, others have been members of parliament, others have been secretary general of the party, others are mayors of Lusaka Province. So what I am trying to say is my main objective is not to become a member of parliament or a government official. Mine is to organize the party. My main objective is to see to it that come 2021 President Edgar Chagwa Lungu should win with a 50 [percent] plus one percent and that requires unity, that requires mobilization,” Kamba said.
Kamba observed that the party was not doing well in the southern districts of Lusaka Province.
“Above all, when we are ushered into office, the PF party is got a challenges in the Southern part of Lusaka Province. As a part, I strongly feel that we need to do a lot in the Southern part of Lusaka Province. That is Chirundu, Chilanga and Kafue Districts. The party is doing very fine in the Eastern part of Lusaka which is Luangwa Rufunsa and Chongwe. So when we are ushered into office, our focus will be where we are not doing fine [which is in] the districts which I have just mentioned in the Southern part of Lusaka Province. We need to mobilize the party, we need to increase numbers in Chirundu. In Chirundu we have got ten wards [and] PF doesn’t have a councillor. In Chirundu District, PF doesn’t have a mayor, In Chirundu District which is Chirundu constituency, PF does not have a member of parliament. In Chilanga we have got ten wards [and] PF has got only four, and recently we won the mayorship and the member of parliament. So we need to do a lot in Chirundu, in Chilanga and in Kafue where we have sixteen wards and out of sixteen wards PF has got only four,” Kamba observed.
He said once elected as provincial youth chairman, he will mobilize and empower the weakest areas so as to boost the party.
“And mobilization comes with logistical challenges. When we are ushered into the office, we are going to come up with fundraising ventures so that we can raise money for our colleagues in Chirundu where the party is not doing fine. So that we can empower them financially [and] materially and mobility where we should buy them a vehicle so that they can start mobilizing the party. You know Chirundu District is a Hilly district, it’s a district where you cannot cycle. You need vehicles for you to mobilize the party,” he said.
And Kamba appealed to youths in Lusaka to campaign on issue based matters.
“We would like to congratulate the winner who is our colleague from the youth wing Nathan Chanda. And the losers I think should work together with the Nathan Chanda led executive committee for the sake of uniting the party and increase numbers. We need everyone in the boat, the boat is not yet full. As for the Lusaka province, we are almost done with the constituencies. Anytime this week they will be voting in Mandevu constituency which is the only remaining constituency to usher in new leadership. We are done with six constituencies in Lusaka, we are just remaining with Mandevu and Lusaka district,” said Kamba.
“My appeal to my fellow youths in Lusaka Province especially in Lusaka District is to campaign on issue based, to tell the party membership what we are going to do, issue based campaigns, what is it we have failed to do and what we are going to do when they usher us into office. Just on myself as the former provincial chairman, we engaged ourselves in party mobilizations and we raised some money to empower our party structures in Lusaka so that they can go flat-out and mobilize the party. We organized a fundraising dinner dance where we raised about a million kwacha through the office of Honorable Stephen Kampyongo and that money has been given out to the constituencies. about K75, 000…when you go to Matero constituency or Munali, the car wash project is running.”