I’m very fit, brags buoyant Kambwili
By Esther Chisola
PATRIOTIC FRONT (PF) presidential aspirant Chishimba Kambwili yesterday dismissed reports that he had failed to appear for his defence in a Lusaka magistrates court because he was very sick.
Kambwili said in a statement he had failed to open his defence because of a routine medical procedure.
He was in September found with a case to answer in an unlawful assembly case. Kambwili had earlier informed the court through his lawyer Kennedy Mambwe he was unable to appear before magistrate Kawama Mwamfuli because of a medical emergency.
“We were ready to proceed with the commencement of defence. I did a pre-trial yesterday and communicated with the accused person today at eight hours, confirming his availability. However, there was a medical emergency that arose in the morning when he was just about to start off. I have a representative and not a surety,” he said.
Magistrate Mwamfuli wondered why the surety was not at court, but there was only a representative.
In response, Mambwe said the surety would have come if he had known about the emergency earlier.
“It’s the peculiar way events happened; if we had known that he wouldn’t come, the surety could have come,” Mambwe said.
The court, however, gave Kambwili the benefit of the doubt and adjourned the matter to January 28, 2026, to begin his defence.
In this case, Kambwili is facing one count of unlawful assembly, which he had denied.
It is alleged that Kambwili, on January 26, 2023, in Lusaka, jointly and whilst acting together with others unknown, unlawfully did assemble with intent to commit an offence or breach of peace.
