By ADRIAN MWANZA
THE presidential immunity clause encourages presidents to misbehave and it should therefore be removed from the constitution, lawyer, Wynter Kabimba has charged.
Mr Kabimba suggests that there would be no need to start chasing after presidents once they leave office if the immunity clause was not there because they would be compelled to behave.
The Constitution, Mr Kabimba said, should be amended to remove immunity of the president clause to restrain and deter serving presidents from acting with impunity.
Mr Kabimba, who is also Economic Front (EF) President, said in an interview that the constitution needed to be worked on and one of the issues that needed serious intervention was the issue of presidential immunity.
Contributing on the debate on the need to review the constitution to remove lacunas, Mr Kabimba said that the fact that sitting presidents knew they had immunity they were prone to get involved in illegal and criminal activities without fear of being prosecuted.
“Presidents in Zambia are untouchable because they can’t face any prosecutions due to the immunity conferred on them,” he said.
“This is a bad law because the President cannot be charged for any criminal and civil crime which he or she may commit because of the unlimited power which they have,” he said.
He said that countries like the USA and Israel did not have such a clause and presidents could be impeached if the senate feels he had erred.
Mr Kabimba said the former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was prosecuted while he was still prime minister.
He said Donald Trump survived an impeachment because the senate at the time comprised mostly Republicans but had that not been the case he would have been removed as President of the United States of America.
Mr Kabimba said it was however a different case in Zambia as people had to wait until an individual was no longer President for them to lift the immunity.
He said this again was a rigorous process because they had to first go to parliament which was another long journey.
Mr Kabimba said this law meant criminally inclined individuals if given an opportunity to lead the country would involve themselves in criminality.
He however said if this was scrapped off people with evil intentions would be scared to vie for presidency because they would not be immune to prosecution.
Mr Kabimba also called on the UPND government to fulfil its promise of amending the constitution which they said was top on their agenda.
“The President should commence constitutional reforms as he promised the people of Zambia when he was in opposition,” he said.
