By Staff Reporter<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
SPEAKER of the National Assembly Patrick Matibini has declared the Roan constituency seat vacant following a point of order raised by Malambo member of parliament Makebi Zulu challenging the eligibility of Chishimba Kambwili to remain in parliament.<\/p>\n
And Kambwili says he expected the decision but only tried to avoid a costly by-election in Roan as the constituents had given him a five-year mandate.<\/p>\n
Zulu who is also Eastern Province minister raised on a point of order last week seeking the declaration of the Roan seat vacant as Kambwili had confirmed on several occasions that he was a member of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC).<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
In his ruling, Speaker Matibini said Kambwili had crossed the line\u201d in his role as NDC consultant and was out of order to sit in the house during the same period.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Dr Matibini made the pronouncement amid loud cheers of \u201chear, hear\u2019 from members of the ruling Patriotic Front, \u00a0stating that the Roan law maker contradicted himself several times in the press when he was asked about his political position as Member of Parliament and political party consultant.<\/p>\n
The Speaker who referred to Kambwili\u2019s media interviews and statements over his alleged expulsion from NDC and his consequent defiance of the party General Secretary Mwenya Musenge\u2019s declaration of\u00a0 the former\u2019s dismissal, he came to the logical conclusion that Kambwili had crossed the floor.<\/p>\n
\u201cHonourable members I would like to state from the outset that coincidentally the legal status of Hon Kambwili MP, in the house has been under my carefull scrutine and reflection following an article that appeared in the Daily Nation Newspaper volume 4 issue\u00a0 number 2168 of Friday 4, January, 2019 and entitled as follows; \u2018I Run my Own Party, Kambwili\u2019 \u201d<\/p>\n
He further indicated that Kambwili had instructed his lawyers to demand that the Daily Nation retracts the article indicating that he had been fired from NDC, or else he would take \u00a0legal action against the Editor-In-Chief for the paper.<\/p>\n
In the same vein the office of the clerk also wrote to the editor Inchief of the Daily Nation requesting him to confirm if the statement in the article had been correctly attributed to Kambwili and the response was in the affirmative. The newspaper further availed a recording of the interview Kambwili gave to the reporter.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe thereby propose to remedy the situation, in this case, by reading in the necessary words so as to make them constitutionally provisio, in this case by reading the necessary words so as to make them un-discriminatory.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dr Matibini drew the attention of the House to Article 71. 2, which reads:\u00a0 \u201cA member of the national assembly shall vacate his seat in the assembly\u2026C, in the case of an elected member, if he becomes a member of a political party other than the party of which he was an authorised candidate when he was elected to the national assembly, or having been an independent candidate joins a political party Or Vice Versa\u2019 end of quote\u201d he stated.<\/p>\n
He declared the evidence before him to the House, calling on the \u00a0members to realise that there were several cases of precedence to back his decision.<\/p>\n
\u201cHonourable members, it is self-evident that in the Lewanika case, by using the purposive approach, the \u00a0supreme court read into the statute the words \u201cOr Vice Versa\u201d to prevent the discriminatory and absurd result of an independent member who joins a political party having to vacate his or her seat,\u201d he indicated.<\/p>\n
The speaker pointed out that in the case under review, applying the purposive approach he similarly agreed with article\u00a0 72 D and 2 G under the constitution to mean that a member of the national assembly shall vacate his or her seat in the assembly if the member resigns from the political party which sponsored him or her into the house.<\/p>\n
\u201cTherefore, honourable members, a member that leaves a political party which elected him to join another one on whose ticket he or she was elected to the house to join another political party loses his or her seat\u201d he said, adding \u201cin view of the fact that Dr Kambwili who was elected to this house on the ticket of the Patriotic Front party has become an office bearer and consequently member of the NDC by virtual of assuming the position of Consultant of the NDC, he has crossed the floor\u201d.<\/p>\n
And reacting to the decision, Kambwili\u00a0\u00a0stated that\u00a0\u00a0as a responsible and genuine leader he had tried to make sure a by election was avoided.<\/p>\n
\u201cNotwithstanding the fact that this is the farming season I would have preferred those residents continue making a livelihood rather than start participating in a by election which is totally unnecessary and will surely disturb the little they are making,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Kambwili alleged that this was the stunt that Musenge was contracted to pull off.<\/p>\n
\u201cMusenge was called upon to cause confusion and disruption in exchange for favour or whatever he was promised,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
He said that he would ordinarily go to court again because there was no fact in the allegation of crossing the floor.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am only human and there\u2019s only so much you can fight for, besides I believe my works and commitment to the betterment of my constituency are security enough to enter the battlefield,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Kambwili disclosed that he will not contest or put up any legal fight against the declaration.<\/p>\n
\u201cI would like to announce that I will not contest or put up any legal fight against the vacant declaration, instead we will go back to the people of Roan so that they can choose their leader once again,\u201d he said. \u00a0\u201cTo the people of Roan I say thank you for according me the opportunity to serve you diligently, I strongly believe the strong ties and bond we have built in the last 13 years is reason enough for you to choose wisely\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By Staff Reporter SPEAKER of the National Assembly Patrick Matibini has declared the Roan constituency seat vacant following a point of order raised by Malambo member of parliament Makebi Zulu challenging the eligibility of Chishimba Kambwili to remain in parliament. And Kambwili says he expected the decision but only tried to avoid a costly […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":4649,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/newsdayzambia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8741"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/newsdayzambia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/newsdayzambia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/newsdayzambia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/newsdayzambia.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8741"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/newsdayzambia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8741\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8742,"href":"http:\/\/newsdayzambia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8741\/revisions\/8742"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/newsdayzambia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4649"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/newsdayzambia.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8741"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/newsdayzambia.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8741"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/newsdayzambia.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8741"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}