UNITED States President Barack Obama has commended former President Kenneth Kaunda for his contribution to growth of democracy in Africa.
President Obama said he appreciates the significant role Dr Kaunda played to African politics.
Mr Obama said this in Johannesburg, South Africa on Tuesday after the national memorial service for former South African President and freedom icon, Nelson Mandela, at the FNB Stadium.
The US president walked up to Dr Kaunda after the ceremony and had a brief chat during which he hailed the former Zambian president’s contribution to the liberation of Africa.
Zambia’s deputy High Commissioner to South Africa Joe Kaunda confirmed in an interview yesterday that Dr Kaunda and Mr Obama had the impromptu chat.
He said Dr Kaunda was appreciated by a number of world leaders who attended the memorial service for his role in the liberation struggle.
“A number of leaders acknowledged the role Dr Kaunda played in African politics.
“President Obama moved from where he was seated to the car park as a number of people wanted to greet him but he spared time to meet Dr Kaunda for a brief chat,” Mr Kaunda said.
Dr Kaunda was accompanied to the memorial service by Vice-President Guy Scott, his wife Charlotte, Minister of Foreign Affairs Wylbur Simuusa, Minister of Gender and Child Development Inonge Wina and Minister of Education John Phiri.
During Dr Kaunda’s presidency, Zambia hosted South Africa’s African National Congress which led the fight against apartheid and for equal rights.
Dr Kaunda also supported liberation fights in Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Angola and Namibia.
so what? is this news sure? who is KK? that old retired senile?
ba wiiiii soooooo eba senile ka cheee kaaar laaar iweeee stan your call
@ Bwalya Chiselema, have respect , KK has done a lot for Zambia and southern Africa.
You *****. Your parent never taught you any form of respect. one wonders what bush you originate from.
Bwalya Chiselema you don’t know what is good for you
So what?
@ Bwalya Chiselema you are disgrace to yourself. Be a proud African (if you are african at all) – be human. The 1st country Mandela visited immediately after his release to prison was Zambia – he came to say thanks to KK and the Zambian people and he said “…it would not have been possible without your support.” So ba Bwalya grow up.
Granted, KK should be up there with other world leaders that played a key role in the liberation of the southern african countries. many liberation movements were taken care of by the Kaunda govt, often at a GREAT COST to the Zambiachan citizenry. KK should have been actualy given a chance to speak. However, his regime was also known persons ‘disappearing’ misteriously, towards the end of his term became ditactorial, and more recently is involved in the ditactorial regime of Michael Sata. The old man has been reduced to almost nothing bcoz of his involvement with Sata, the later being the only president without friends in this region.
We mwana Bwalya Chiselema teka akasanga mu linso, tuli mu kulosha impalume ya chalo conse Mandela, wi ileteleshamo pakusalula KK limbi bawiso takweba. Ndemona tawaliko. KK atungulwile amashiwi ya chalo muno chalo cesu ukufuma mu 1948 ukufika 1991 ninshi taulabako eco ulelandilefyo! Bwalya honour your father and elders if you wish God’s blessings to come upon you. Kenneth Kaunda was involved in African politic from 1948-1991 in leadership. Even Mandela respected him very much and was the first President he visited out of South Africa immediately after his release from prison. Even now out of leadership these venerable remnants of men like Mandela and KK deserve respect inspite of any of their human faults and errors. I pray your father(if u still have one will sit you down for…
Your are forgiven. Just from your statement I could tell how old you are.
Ba Bwalya finshi mwakalipa .Lets take after Mandela.if you hope to be a leader one start practicing reality aproach to lifes suprises. wake up .the world is going “human”.no room for babie dictators in the making. imagine how far u are from being one like the one we re mourning
LT. just delete Chisenama’s comment. Some insults are not worthy reading.
Are you sure you don’t know KK? Then you are not a Zambian neither are you a southern African? Let alone a zambian. In fact US shouldn’t have championed this funeral. They and Britain used to call ANC and Mandela terrorists and Zambia terrorist supporters. All Obama is supposed do is appologise to Zambians.
KK a dictator of 27 years in power and a libertarian Mandela, 27 years in prison.
Obama initiated to see the dictator, who abrogated the BA 64. Once a dictator, always a dictator and that’s KK, the dictator of 27 years.
Mandela was a great man and should not be confused to the likes of KK who supported Savimbi’s UNITA thugs.
The dictator without memoirs!
KK has place in my heart for poising Simon Mwansa Kapwepwe, I will only come to Zed when he dies as he kept on feeding us roller meal as his preference.
be real men
@Bwalya Chiselema uli chipumbu. You will also grow old and become senile. Oh, No, I think iwe ubupuba bwachilamo, you won’t even grow to reach KK’s age.
if you dont know who kk is no one cares but after obama knows that without him we doubt if mandela wound have reached today even test state house kk is a MAN wweather you kike it or not
@ Skeleton and FTKitwe,you’re one and the same person.We know you’re from Congo but pretend to be a Zambian.We know you hate KK because your family were smugglers and KK was tough on them.Don’t go to Zambia,just go back to Congo where you come from.Your entire family can’t achieve what KK has achieved.Nangu ni jealous nifi?You can’t take away anything from KK you *****.
I hope Obama wud come 4da old man’s
memorial aswel.
That is erroneous to think like that.
OK – But its not important whether he met him or not, its immaterial. Obama is an illuminati anyway.
How did you know? If he is so what? Has he forced you to be one? What makes him different from your parents in the village?
@JJ, you s.on of a w.ho.re. Is this for you iwe stan your call chikkala. Waba um.ushindo matha.fakha.
Obama had a brief chat with other leaders too. this is not news. But wwhy didn’t Sata go. thanks.
But why did you want Sata to go??????????
Thanks.
@Yambayamba, there are opportunities in life of which once one miss and rejects for rest of their life. Its impossible to understand why Sata didn’t go, it could have been better if his doctors publicly said that he couldn’t manage the many hours long in stadium.
@ Nostradamus how did you expect Sata’s doctors to tell you why he did not go when they have been hiding what he is suffering from?
Is this news? Obama met a lot of people, we all meet greet a lot of people when we go for funeral.
I also had a handshake and not a milkshake with Obama.
I am sure that’s news in Cuba as it is here in America. So what’s your point?
And yet our current president chose not to take the opportunity for this kind of informal exchange with other world leaders.
And the current president chose to spare Zambian taxpayers a huge lodging bill by not taking the opportunity for this kind of “informal exchange” with other world leaders. For Gods sakes it is funeral and not a summit!!!
And if I may ask; what exchange did KK have with Obama? What I read in the story is that they had a “CHAT” in which Obama thanked and congratulated Dr. Kenneth Kaunda for his contribution to the freedom struggle on the content of Africa. We don’t even know what KK said back to Obama. Maybe he (KK) just said to him “Thank you very much young man!” Yet you want to misconstrued/stretch this to be an “Informal exchange.” Mwe ma Zambian kanshi finshi mulepepa these days?
@ Yambayamba, please!
First, part of any leader’s job is to network and this was a clear missed opportunity to fly the flag and greet other world leaders. Even just to say hello, handshake (…or maybe take a selfie?) is an important part of building personal and national relations that help in the long run. These opportunities don’t come around often and some would are priceless.
Second, Zambia paid money to send a delegation anyhow…. headed by second-stringers. Serious, of all the things to “save” money on and you want to skimp on this?
Or, maybe you don’t you believe Mr. Sata is up to the job, is too prone to comedy, and would not have made good use of the opportunity like so many other world leaders did?
“President Obama moved from where he was seated to the car park as a number of people wanted to greet him but he spared time to meet Dr Kaunda for a brief chat,” Does the above picture suggest that the chat was in the car park! PF chaps lying even in other people’s lands sure.
Ke ke ke ke!
Kaunda is a great man. He made mistakes and he admitted them, no one is perfect but let us look back at what KK accomplished, we had our own national airline, we had productive state farms, we had a parastatal mining organisation that employed so many people and provided good pay and working conditions, Zambia had amonsgt the best infrastructure that was built by an independent African country and not inherited from the colonialists.Through Kaunda so many Zambians even t hose that say bad things about him were educated. He was not perfect but he tried and we are truelly blessed we had Kaunda to unite the country and see us Zambians play a major role in the liberation of Southern African brothers. Also do not forget he did peacefully accept the 1991 election results.
Did he admit to making a mistake on BA 64? A dictator who wants to appear as angel of light.
If you are talking about liberation struggle, KK happened to be among the many- Simon Mwansa Kapwepwe, Reuben Kamanga, Nalumino Mundia, Grey Zulu, Munukayumbwa Sipalo, Lawrence Katilungu, Elijah Mudenda, Harry Mwaanga Nkumbula, Solomon Kalulu and many others. But the fact is KK clung on to power under the one party state. As if that wasn’t enough he introduced the state emergency to suppress freedoms of sorts. It’s that dark cloud that still overshadows him and in recent times his partisan behaviour confirms the lust for power and limelight. I see no remorse for his past deeds based on that. The sooner he realises that at his age dignity is more important than few photos with Sata the better for him.Here bloggers’ expressions of anger manifests in all forms, but I do subscribe to…
He belongs to history this man,caused us to suffer a lot .
De photo almost looks like a selfie like the one Obama took with the Danish bombshell Helle Thorning-Schmidt.
The former president was accompanied by the vice president? Shouldn’t it be the other way round? George Kunda was right. This is a dummy vice president. Wynter Kabimba was right, this vice president is a chola boy. And the grand finale: HH was right, uyu ni muzungu opusa
I think Obama does not know Kaunda. It was even better for him chat with Mugabe than this I-d-I-o-t called KK
Bululu uleke ukupeepa ichamba!!
“…The US president walked up to Dr Kaunda after the ceremony and had a brief chat during which he hailed the former Zambian president’s contribution to the liberation of Africa…”
From this statement it is clear that the young man (Obama), relatively speaking, knows and recognizes who KK is and what he has contributed to the ‘African struggle’. Mind you Obama is not just an “educated id!iot like some of you!” The man is quite studious and understands these issues pretty well—being a child of the sixties and half Kenyan.
No matter how hard you imports from ZWD try to tar this man (KK) he will remain a respected figure around the world for his principled stand against inhumane and evil systems such as apartheid—hate him or love him!
Spot on.
And he was like ”remember me like him wen i die”
Really! What is news worthy about Obama having a casual talk with anyone like KK or to Castro?
Obama made some glances with a white lady in one photo at the funeral. It was big news. Really!
Obama took a selfie (sp) with the British Prime Minister, David Cameron, and the Danish Prime minister, Schmidt, and it is BIG NEWS in the Western media. Especially here in America!
So, what is NEWS if I may ask!????
Well, NEWS is simply what someone with a media-megaphone (News Outlet) decides to HEADLINE. KK meeting Obama may not be news in Britain, America, South Africa, Denmark, Kenya, Malawi, etc. but that doesn’t mean the Zambian media also shouldn’t make a “big deal” about it!
Guess what? Obama is the president of the world by default.
Next, he is the next Mandela of our generation….. already with a Nobel peace prize. Honestly, he behaves the part, and he learnt from the master
I don’t think Obama was right KK was for one party state which Chiluba introduced democracy. On African Politics Yes Kaunda Played Major role in Africa & is one of the first Black Presidents in Africa.
Iwe Number 17 (I can’t even quote your non de plume) can you surely compare Chiluba to KK? Or even to Mwanawasa, Banda or even Sata? KK will live in our minds indelibly as he made us what we are today! My father was paying school fees and KK introduced real “free education” not this so called free education you chaps are having! We had real experiments in science classes; subdised transport (like in the UK); subsdised free milk (like in Canada); life was in abundance(Zambia had the second best economy in the Third World! What can I say!
Chiluba did not introduce democracy but KK did.
Bwalya Chiselema, hailing insults on elders qualifies you to live short days on earth. If u can insult an elderly person like KK. its obvious than zou even insult your parents, then you are not worth living. Cursed is the day you were born & may darkness
continued… & evil follow u all the days of your life & you shall dwell in the den of lucifar for ever.
And who told you that? He was wrong but that does not make you his jugde!!!!!! What you are doing is exactly the same as what he did
@bwalya Chiselema… Really , you have insulted the elderly person KK . You have just cursed yourself young man. Dont be surprised when you or your wife or your children start dying or become sickly . This is how young men who insult elderly people are punished by God. Further dont get surprise when your children or other children start insulting you. ” RESPECT YOUR FATHER AND MOTHER IF YOU WANT MORE DAYS ON EARTH”
Peace and Prosperity to Mother Zambia.
Too much jealousy even when it comes to one shaking hands with the other, yeah it could have been news only if he had a hand shake with some of you, but there is nothing so far that you have contributed not even in you bush village. Let the old man enjoy for what he did, besides he is just human hence he might have wronged some.
That selfie pic by David, Obama and the lady made them look like some grade 5 that have just got a new camera, Mrs Obama was not that pleased though.
Why praise KK honestly?? Kaunda was a dictator & this is a fact nothing will ever change this. Zambians hv a very short memory. They easy forget even whn one criminal kills their own blood two years later they will forget
I AM TO A LARGE DEGREE QUITE DISAPPOINTED WITH THE WORLD MEDIA FOR DELIBERATELY SIDELINING THE ROLE PLAYED BY THE ZMBIAN POEPLE IN GENERAL AND DR. KAUNDA IN PARTICULAR IN THE LIBERATION OF NOT ONLY SOUTH AFRICA BUT ZIMBABWE, ANGOLA, MOZAMBIQUE, NAMIBIA AS WELL. DONT YOU REMEMBER THE FRONTLINE STATES, DONT YOU REMEMBER THE BOMING OF BRDGES LIKE LWANGWA, AND CHAMBESHI IN KASAMA. DONT PEOPLE WHAT LED TO THE CONSTRUCTION OF TAZARA AND TAZAMA ZAMBIANS MADE HUGE SACRIFICES WE HOSTED FREEDOM FIGHTERS LIKE LATE CHITEPO, JOSHUA NKOMO,THABO MBEKI MANY OTHERS IN AND AROUND LUSAKA. DO YOU KNOW THE PLACE NEXT TO PRINCE PHILIP OR KAMWALA SECONDARY SCHOOL AS IT IS NOW CALLED – THAT WAS THE LIBERATION CENTRE THE ONE THAT BROUGHT FREEDOM TO THE ENTIRE SOUTHERN AFRICA.
I agree with you and the media especially the SA ones went to town talking about Obama,Clinton Bush,Cameroon,very little or no mention of Africans!I can think of Nyerere,Kaunda,Machel.Dos Santos,Mobutu,and Obasanjo!Yes!Nigeria was a member of the front line sates!
Am actually disappointed they made little recognition of these men who sacrificed so much for RSA.South Africans want to identify themselves with the west and NOT Africa.
David Camerron as a student leader was championing the hanging of Mandela as a terrorist!
FTKitwe, You can stay in Canada for ever cos no one wants you in Zambia, maybe even your own extended family has forgotten about you. Don’t come up with illogical excuses for not Visiting your Mother land, which evidently you are not proud off. And this applies to all those that Day in day out keep dissing Zambia.
Bwalya Chiselema your are a wasted spermatozoa, your father should have just slept without touching your mother the night your mother concieved you. Ka wiso too much fi chibuku grade seven iwe
If per so at work do u know kk?
i nomally dont comment when i see the age groupm of people making comment so icontinue being quiet and respect my KK
what chat did they have..?does Obama know who KK is ..kekekekekekeke
Ba Sata not attending Mandela’s memorial was actually a blessing to Zambia. The president was sure to say something uncouth at the funeral and embarrassing us in the process. He knows he has zero inter-personal skills, his behavior is so uncouth for a president, that is the main reason no head of state, worth his salt, would want to be associated with him. No one has ever visited him, save for Mugabe. Zambia’s next president has a tough job of restoring the honorable image our country enjoyed during previous heads of state. Mr. Sata has single-handedly destroyed that image. But at least we should be thankful he had the sense not to go to South Africa and tarnish our image.
@1.14 FTKitwe you can remain where you are. KK is the most revered statesman of today. Mistakes were done by bureaucrats, overzealous cadres and sychophants. Nobody can take away what he did and how firmly he stood against aggressors and apartheid regimes of Zimbabwe and South Africa. He is simply complementing efforts to keep Zambia’s good name, knowing very well that he can take a back seat (his health is not good) but that will not guide and motivate some of the ruling elite to at least do something and tone down their temper, arrogance and hatred. He is misunderstood on his relations with PF. Think Before YAP
KK did what he did for circumstances by then allowed for that.The positives he has done for mankind overshadow whatever any mistake he made.At 1 time even Nelson participated in violence and was neccessary by then.kk,kk,kk….viva kk!
Fonko Fonko