Fellow citizens,
In order to curb the polical violence we have witnessed in the past two days, I have allowed the Zambia Army, Zambia Air Force and Zambia National Service to help the Zambia Police in dealing with the security situation.
Maintaining law and order is a daily chore of the police, but sometimes they need help from other security wings.
Defence wing personnel have already been deployed in some parts of Lusaka and will be deployed in other parts of the country if the situation demands so.
I have taken this step in order to ensure that the electoral process – the work of the Electoral Commission of Zambia – is not interfered with.
The events in Kanyama where two of our members were allegedly killed in political violence makes me very sad. I’m sad not because the victims were members of my party, but because they were Zambians who didn’t deserve to die in that manner.
People die for political freedom, just like our forefathers did in order to win us freedom from our colonisers, but no-one should die for exercising their democratic freedom. Democracy is a battle of ideas, and we should keep it that way.
We should not allow what happened in Kanyama to be repeated anywhere else in our country. We cannot shed any more blood. I expect all political players to exercise maximum restraint, even under provocation and allow the law to take its course.
Let us not forget who we are – one Zambia, one nation.
Ndife anthu amodzi
Tuli bantu bomwe
Tuli bantu bamo
Lu bathu bali ali n’wi
Tudi antu amu
Twi bantu bamo.
Tuvathuva vamwe
