Maravi

Rupiah should clear himself - Kaingu

Rupiah should clear himself - Kaingu
By Moses Kuwema
Sun 22 Jan. 2012, 13:59 CAT

Mwandi MMD member of parliament Michael Kaingu says the lifting of Rupiah Banda's immunity will give him an opportunity to exonerate himself.

But Emmanuel Hachipuka says rushing into lifting the former president's immunity without thorough investigations and specific evidence might result in the cases taking too long to be disposed of.

In an interview, Kaingu, however, said if the trend of having former presidents' immunity removed is allowed to continue, posterity might not be very kind with the country.

Kaingu, the former minister of community development in the Banda administration, said it was good to let Banda clear himself and the speculations that were going round.

"If it remains like that, he will go down in the history as somebody who could have been corrupt so it gives him an opportunity to clear his name, but again as people we have to be very careful with the history that we leave for ourselves so that posterity does not judge us harshly. But at the same time when a person is accused - if they are accusing Michael Kaingu that he had helped himself with some money - the best is to take Kaingu to court so that he can clear himself," he said.

Kaingu said people should not be emotional when discussing the issue of lifting Banda's immunity

"We should not be emotional when we discuss these matters. We should reason and come up with things which are sustainable than come up with programmes which will look more emotional. Even now when we discuss president Banda's immunity, we must reason than become emotional because at the end of the day what is important is what is attainable, what we can possibly maintain as people," he said.

Kaingu said as a country, there was need to be very careful when setting up certain programmes and to always remember that the country was bigger than individuals.

"If every president that serves will be subjected to court cases, it means we don't know really what posterity will have for us. Remember that the country is much bigger than us, most of us will die and the country will move. That is why in Africa we have to be very careful how we set up our programmes as a continent. You remember at the beginning of 1992-1993, we did not treat Kenneth Kaunda very well, if you remember president Kaunda even went to prison. It is almost shameful now to call him the father of the nation after the treatment that he was given, but thank God he did not stay long there. And then president Levy Mwanawasa took over from president Frederick Chiluba, the latter had his immunity lifted. I feel that if president Mwanawasa had lived, then president Banda would have probably lifted his immunity and then subjected him to clear himself. So that is what I am saying, you can see that there is a trend that is being set by ourselves as people. So if that trend continues, posterity might not be very kind with us," Kaingu said.

Asked if he would support the motion once it was taken to Parliament, Kaingu said the MMD as a party would have to sit and come up with a collective decision.

And Hachipuka, in an interview, said the prosecution team must be above board.

"If that is not done then we have a problem and we will end up exactly with the same failures and I think I support those who are calling for thorough investigations first, not to rush into prosecution, lifting of immunity without specific evidence or thorough investigations. We shall end up the Chiluba route," said Hachipuka, who is former Mbabala member of parliament.

Hachipuka said one of the problems that the country had was the issue of rushing to court when the evidence had not been properly put together especially that in a society like Zambia which was labelled as highly corrupt, the shielding of evidence was a common factor.

"To what extent has this new government retained all the evidence they found in these offices to successfully prosecute? Is the evidence available and still intact to enable a successful prosecution? It is not possible seriously that people who were in office left those offices with evidence lying around for the prosecution to successfully prosecute," he said.

Hachipuka said he was praying to God that the evidence that the prosecution team would be looking for would be found especially that these investigations were being handled by a new government, which was not in office.

He urged Zambians to come forward and provide the evidence that the prosecution team would require.

And Hachipuka said in order for the prosecution team to carry out their work effectively, there was need for them to be remunerated well.

He said the government had not been paying the prosecution team well, adding that there was insufficient inducement to entice decent lawyers to work for the government.

"If the salaries of these people prosecution is not good enough, then you are going to have mediocrity on the prosecution side whereas people who are being prosecuted remember if it is true they have stolen, they have more money and can hire the best lawyers. If we check, the lawyers that are handling these high profile cases, they are well schooled and well paid so you have a problem if the lawyers that are in the private sector are economically powerful because then the government must recognise that the prosecution team if not well paid cannot stand," said Hachipuka.

Labels: EMMANUEL HACHIPUKA, LEGAL IMMUNITY, MICHAEL KAINGU, RUPIAH BANDA

posted by MrK @ 1:35 PM