RAINBOW Party general secretary Wynter Kabimba says the UPND government has only succeeded in decentralizing corruption from Lusaka to the constituencies as a result of the increased Constituency Development Fund (CDF).

And Kabimba says he initially thought the UPND Cabinet would comprise angels, only to discover that some of the ministers who had been appointed after so long were corrupt.

Meanwhile, Kabimba says his party is in the process of changing its name since “rainbow” has been associated with LGBT over the years.

Speaking when he featured on United Voice Radio’s Add Your Voice programme, Wednesday, Kabimba argued that the CDF allocated to constituencies would only bring about chaos.

“Let me make a confession, CDF is not my cup of tea even when I was in government. I argued that it was a bedrock of corruption and that is when the ruling party and opposition political parties agree because everybody is a beneficiary. They are calling this decentralization. For God’s sake, that is not decentralization as we know it in local government. I will tell you what will happen. What is going to happen is that the MP is going to establish or register to PACRA phone companies, shell companies to access CDF. So it will end up in his pocket or the pockets of his kith and kin. If you want to use decentralization, they have decentralized corruption from Lusaka to the constituencies. That’s the only thing they have succeeded in doing. I can tell you that it will not work, it will bring chaos,” he said.

And Kabimba said he initially thought the UPND Cabinet would comprise angels due to the delay in appointments, only to discover after it was unveiled that some of the ministers were corrupt in previous governments.

“We saw that even with the cabinet, for one month we didn’t have a cabinet and we were promised by the President that ‘I want to give you the best cabinet that this country has ever seen’. We said to ourselves ‘wow this must be composed of angels from heaven’. When it was finally announced, it was discovered it’s the same human beings we knew, same. Some of them were corrupt in previous governments and were part of the government. So I have no hope that the aspect of PSs will be any different,” he said.

Meanwhile, Kabimba said his party was in the process of rebranding its name.

“On the 24th of September this year, we had a central committee meeting and in that central committee meeting, we were delving into issues of what happened this last election and what is the way forward. What we resolved is that the Rainbow party by way of moving forward should rebrand. One of the problems we have faced over the years is that the word ‘rainbow’ has been associated with LGBT; lesbians, gays, bi-sexual and transgender people. That’s what you find even when you google. The first 10 pages will be about homosexuality and then the Rainbow party will be on the 11th page. So the view came up from both within and outside the party that we should change the name. I can tell you that in 2026 we are participating as a new entity,” he said.

Kabimba challenged President Hakainde Hichilema to expose the people he claimed were corrupt under the previous regime.

“The man has turned himself into the office of ACC, DEC, telling us that the past regime was corrupt. Okay, maybe you are right Sir but show us the corrupt people. They are unable to show us any of those corrupt people to date. Where are the corrupt people Mr HH that you keep on screaming to the high heavens that there are corrupt people in this country? We want to see them and when we see them we shall support him. We don’t want anybody who helped themselves to the coffers of this country to go scot free,” said Kabimba.

“You are referring to a point that ECL was left all by himself, it happened even with RB in 2011. The only person that he came with for the swearing in ceremony was his son Andrew Banda. All the people that he ate with from the same plate took off. That’s what we saw even with the last election. What is the lesson from that? Politicians must play their politics with the people that they know, with friends that they come with a long time. Politics of convenience because you think this political party is going to win and that you can get a job, does not turn around to give you genuine human beings. Look at what happened after ECL lost, even the so-called Christians that were singing gospel songs during independence at State House started apologizing, started pleading with HH to forgive them for they knew not what they were doing.”