UPND SO INSENSITIVE ABOUT CRITICISM – CIVIL RIGHTS ACTIVIST
JOCEK Kunda, a change agent ambassador says the UPND is averse to criticism and uncomfortable with people who speak out against the wrongs the party is believed to be committing.
Mr Kunda is advocating for the rights of refugees and internally displaced Zambians and promotes national values as espoused in the country’s constitution.
Mr Kunda, however, says the UPND administration shall not manage to silence the voices that speak against wrongs committed under its watch and it was time they started listening because only then would they be able to govern the country with contentment.
He said continuous biasness, torture, humiliation and prosecution the UPND government had continued to which he had been subjected to would not quench his desire to stand up for the voiceless.
“I am sad to report that police has arrested me five times without presenting the dockets to court. According to police, these matter have been reported by Mr Dickson Matembo, the permanent secretary in the Ministry of Home Affairs and Internal Security,” Mr Kunda said.
When called for a comment on the allegations, Mr Matembo requested, via a WhatsApp message to be called on Sunday as he was out of the country.
But Mr Kunda revealed that police told him that UPND thought he had issued statements, which questioned its governance style on behalf of former President Edgar Lungu or Fred M’membe, the Socialist Party president.
He has since appealed to the Public Protector (Caroline Sokoni) to take interest in Government officials who were abusing their authority so that citizens were protected.
“The Office of the Public Protector has been quiet on the many abuses being perpetrated by the UPND with the aid of some civil servants. The Public Protector has been toothless for some time now.
It is for this reason that we appeal to President Hakainde Hichilema himself to discipline his civil servants who abuse the authority vested in him,” Mr Kunda said.
He said the police and other law enforcements agencies should not be used by politicians and politically exposed persons to prosecute innocent people.
“We will not allow this kind of dictatorial tendencies in our country to continue and we will not stop speaking as a country. We will not be intimidated to speak out for being mistreated,” Mr Kunda said.
He said despite being a diabetic patient, he had been arrested more than five times on tramped up charges, cases which had never seen the inside of a court room.
Mr Kunda said what was obtaining on the ground was the opposite of what President Hakainde Hichilema preached about confirming the fact that Zambia had slid into a dictatorship.