LET COURTS DECIDE
…ministers, permanent secretaries can’t decide Mukandila’s nationality – Chiputa
By Charles Musonda
THE dispute over detained lawyer Celestine Mukandila’s nationality should be settled by a court of law, says historian Dr Eustone Chiputa.
In an interview with The Mast, Dr Chiputa said when there were issues that were deemed to be criminal in governance they should be settled by the courts of law.
“They should not be settled by ministers or permanent secretaries; those are not experts at law. That is why we have the Judiciary, anything that is contested let it be settled by the court of law,” Dr Chiputa said.
“If the government took the gentleman to court and the court proved that it was true, it will be the case settled by the court of law and he will not be looking at individuals. For now, he is looking at individuals as people who are victimising him.”
He said such were issues government leaders should not be emotional about but always be impartial.
Leaders should never, ever, take sides and if they had anything that was contested let it go to court.
“They say when you’re not sure follow the rules and in our governance system as a democracy, the rule is that when you say this is wrong and someone say it is right let it be settled by the court of law. Let that case go to court and let him prove he is Zambian,” Dr Chiputa said.
If Mukandila failed, it would have been settled.
“If, for example, for argument’s sake they bundle him out of Zambia, he will go to the international system and say he was victimised because he was never allowed to go to court,” he said.
In his view government should have taken Mukandila to court and the court should have proved what the government was alleging.
Dr Chiputa said even on fraud itself law enforcement agencies took people to court and did not just decide on their own and take offenders to prison.
He said even when all the evidence was readily available, courts of law were the competent institutions to make a final decision.
“The case is tested in court. The conviction is secured and the person is locked up. It takes a judicial face rather than the faces of individuals who are handling the case. That is why even when someone is released, they have nothing to do with law enforcement officers and the prosecutors because they are not the ones who made the decision,” Dr Chiputa said.
Mukandila, the secretary general of the main opposition political party, the National Reconciliation Party for Unity and Prosperity (NRPUP).
He has been languishing in police detention after the Department of Immigration snatched him and locked him up on the allegation that he is not a Zambian.
Government has since revoked his national identity card and passport.
But Mukandila has taken the matter to court.
He says he is a Zambian by descent because his mother was a Zambian from Chief Matanda’s chiefdom in Luapula Province while his father was a Congolese.
