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Luapula is ready to teach Rupiah a lesson - Sakeni

Luapula is ready to teach Rupiah a lesson - Sakeni
By Patson Chilemba
Sat 23 July 2011, 14:00 CAT

THE people of Luapula are ready to teach Rupiah Banda and the MMD an unforgettable lesson in this year’s general elections, says Kennedy Sakeni. And Sakeni wondered why the majority of Luapula PF ‘rebel’ members of parliament have been rejected for adoption on the MMD ticket when they claimed that Luapula was a no-go area for PF.

In an interview, Sakeni, who is PF’s Luapula Province chairman, said facts on the ground in the province were that people were more than determined to change government.

“I think it’s time for Mr Rupiah Banda and his government to just say ‘we are leaving, we have failed our people’. And that is why the people of Luapula are saying they can’t be cheated and they are going to vote in large numbers against MMD,” Sakeni said.

“In Luapula we (PF) are more than ready to face them even if elections were held tomorrow. We will carry all the 14 constituencies. And we are challenging Mr Rupiah Banda to just announce the day. Why is he so scared? Why is he buying time? We are ready for him.”

Sakeni said while government leaders were busy visiting chiefs and giving them fat envelopes, the PF had assured the traditional leaders to just get the envelopes but apply ‘don’t kubeba’ (don’t tell) policy.

“They chiefs know the truth in their hearts that the people want change. So even to the chiefs mukwai ‘Don’t Kubeba’ is our policy and they appreciate as well. It is even immoral for them (government) to be parading our chiefs. If they were popular why not just call for elections?” Sakeni asked.

“They are actually embarrassing our traditional leaders, putting them before television cameras every now and then. At times they don’t even know these things are going to be published. They are innocently talking because even us as PF when we go there they tell us their feelings, but we can’t come to you the press to say ‘this is what they have told us’.”

He laughed off President Banda and MMD’s claims that they had achieved unprecedented levels of development when people were faced with acute poverty in the province.

“I don’t know which development government can talk home about when you look at the Congo Peddicle Road, Mansa-Luwingu road, Kashikishi-Lunchinda road; when you look at the potholes on Mansa-Kashikishi road, the potholes on Mansa-Chembe road, as for the feeder roads, you can’t even describe what status they are in,” Sakeni said.

“When you talk about the level of energy we receive, it is low voltage. There is no industry anybody can put up and depend on Zesco energy. There is not enough energy in the province. People’s electric appliances are getting damaged every day because of the low voltage and unexplained power outages.”

He said farmers were spending sleepless nights at depots because there was no one to buy their crops, and did not even know when the exercise would start.

He said school desks were lying idle at District Education Board Offices because they could not be distributed.

Sakeni cited the health sector in Luapula as being in shambles

“When you look at the development they are talking about, it is development in their own pockets. Most people, as chief Chisunka recently put it, are roaming the streets because of unemployment,” Sakeni said.

“So what type of development are they talking about and what is the interpretation of the so-called growth in our econo my if people can continue wallowing in poverty?”

And Sakeni said it was shameful that five, out of the eight PF rebel members of parliament in Luapula had been rejected to stand on the MMD ticket which was not as popular in Luapula.

“Even if MMD knows that they are going to lose all the seats, they would rather risk with their own members. As for Machungwa’s standing in Lusaka, it simply shows that the man has lost popularity in his own Luapula Constituency and Mr Rupiah has just got to sort of appease him by adopting him in Kabwata in Lusaka,” said Sakeni.

“He Rupiah Banda knows that he is just using him as a sacrificial lamb.”

Labels: KENNEDY SAKENI, LUAPULA PROVINCE, PF

posted by MrK @ 10:56 PM