Sata’s Dynasty: Mulenga stages coup de grace

Kabimba fell for the trap

Like the power-hungry drone he was, Wynter Kabimba flew straight into the Venus flytrap set by the president’s son Mulenga. The bait which was long overdue was laid on that fateful day, July 5, 2014 when Mulenga Sata returned from a conspicuous “business” trip to South Korea, haphazardly arranged at a time his father was admitted to Sheba Medical Center in Tel Aviv, Israel. This day marked the beginning of the end of Kabimba.
What led Kabimba into the flytrap was his ruinous relationship with Sata. The imperious Sata created Kabimba in his own image. Sata had stepped on too many toes he needed a sentry to guard his immorality and depravity. He found in solicitor Kabimba the very obsequious lapdog. Kabimba found in Sata a surrogate father. Both known to be vicious, arrogant, and evasive, their chemistry was palpable. Within a short time of their meeting, they cut wrists and mixed blood. Sata allowed Kabimba into his soul and led him into the very dark alleys of his life and entrusted him with his baggage.

After 24 years Kabimba’s loyalty paid off. In April 2009, Sata appointed him Secretary General of the Patriotic Front Party so he could keep an eye on Geoffrey Mwamba, Given Lubinda, Willie Nsanda, and other alienated and maladjusted people who were bent on hijacking his personal party. In August 2012, their blood pact was further consolidated when Sata, who had denied Kabimba a cabinet post, enticed him into the creation of a company called Ilunda Ichalo Investment under the false auspices of the PF. Sata, Kabimba, and Indian investor Imran Merchant were registered as stakeholders.

It can be stated that it was partly due to the creation of Ilunda, a Hilliburton type of business that Sata appointed Kabimba as Minister of Justice in the following month of September. Hilliburton is former U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney’s company that has raked billions of dollars from contracts with virtually no bidding. With Kabimba as cabinet minister, Ilunda contract bidding has unlawfully been receiving special treatment. Also, as Justice Minister, the mercurial Kabimba became a dragnet for all unconscionable deals and an interceptor of undesirable complaints and queries.

Further, with Ilunda in the offing, Kabimba became Sata’s closest ally and favorite cabinet minister. Their business relationship meant that they met often. In each meeting Kabimba saw a president declining in vitality. Of course he knew Sata was battling some sort of illness and whatever it was, it was beginning to take its toll. He was becoming pale and was beginning to look haggard.

Mulenga Sata a thorn in Kabimbas flesh

There was something else Kabimba saw; the rapid rise of Mulenga Sata, a neophyte who was sailing through elections unopposed. Having known Sata for almost three decades, Kabimba fully understood the motive behind Mulenga’s easy victories. The covetous King Cobra was at work creating his dynasty.

There was some measure of envy in Kabimba. As a vitalizing force for the party, he saw how easy it was to brainwash PF cadres, most of whose desolate lives he had rekindled. He was their Chief Executive. He rewarded them for every UPND or MMD meeting they disrupted and for every enemy they clobbered or hacked with their Pangas. It is said he sent some to Sudan for militia training. In October 2013, Lusaka District Patriotic Front Chairman Robert Chikwelete revealed that the training was headed by PF Provincial Chairman Geoffrey Chuumbwe an ardent supporter of Kabimba who stocked weapons in a “Kabimba armory” at his residence.

Believing he had secured the support of PF cadres in all vital provinces, his demeanor changed. He began to behave like he too was Sata’s son—Mulenga’s senior and therefore heir. And with Chuumbwe as his lieutenant he began to feel like Zeus, the god of the sky who overthrew his father Cronus. His over the top behavior prompted Geoffrey Mwamba to try and oust him from the party. But as we all know GBM paid a heavy price.
Sata’s surprising damping of GBM in preference of Kabimba showed that no one would break their umbilical cord not even in the wake of the “Fourth Republic,” a clandestine party purported to be Kabimba’s brainchild. There was too much at stake. For years Kabimba had carried Sata’s baggage in which his dirty laundry was kept. In fact when faced with expulsion from the party, Kabimba threatened to open the bags for all to see.
Had Kabimba been expelled, he was going to take us through Merzaf, LUDC, MMD’s covert operations under Chiluba, and tribalism, corruption, nepotism, dictatorship, and rigging in the Patriotic Front. In a nutshell he was going to hang Sata’s dirty linen in public. With this in mind a confident Kabimba silenced those advocating for his removal with a boisterous “only President Sata can remove me.”

In the meantime, Mulenga was worried. At the rate things were going his shining star was quickly fading. “Big Brother” Kabimba was a nuisance. Intending to keep an eye on him and his “armory,” Mulenga contested the post of Lusaka District Chairman in January 2014 and won.

His victory did not bother Kabimba one bit. To him succeeding Sata was a prerogative. In fact the assignment to act as president was overdue. True to his word, the week before the president was suddenly evacuated incognito under the pretext of a working holiday to Israel he handed over the instruments of power to Kabimba to the dismay of Mulenga, “uncle” Chikwanda, Edgar Lungu, Chishimba Kambwili, Jean Kapita and other cabinet ministers who despise him.

Acting President Wynter Kabimba

Now, modus operandi requires that the president meets and confides in the person he appoints to act. In this case as ill as Sata was, he met with Kabimba, and like has always been the case since their LUDC vows the two had a tête-à-tête, only this time it felt like a dying father handing over power to his son.

Prior to their meeting it was rumored that a Mmembe-led cartel was intending to replace Sata with Kabimba in the event he expired, and that Mulenga would be rewarded with a cabinet post. Whatever machination Memmbe and his gofers had in mind, Kabimba who never let scruples get in his way had his own agenda. In as far as he was concerned Sata had just appointed him Zambia’s sixth president. On June 22, 2014, he undertook his duties as head of state.

With Sata battling illness, the country attention shifted to Acting President Wynter Kabimba. Heretofore, The Post newspaper would become his mouthpiece. Kabimbas supporters, including Guy Scott, would be responsible for campaigns around the country. The “armory” would be replenished and “Lieutenant” Chuumbwe, who already had a taste of violence, would be promoted to a full general, and a vigorous gory campaign would be launched to win Kabimba a full two terms.

Mulenga felt his critically ill father had been duped and the dynasty was perilous. At the Lusaka District cadres were rending a deaf ear to him. Some were convinced his father was gone for good—the Sata legacy was over. They were determined to reverse all the “unopposed” votes accorded him, accuse him of “riding on his father’s back” and null his mayoral election. Scott rubbed salt into the wound when he told the nation that Mulenga did not qualify to be president. When Mulenga rushed to ZNBC to respond, he was met with piercing rhetoric from the Acting President: “don’t think ZNBC is your father’s property.”

Yes, “President” Kabimba had tasted riches, had tasted lust, now he was tasting power. On July 1, 2014 he hosted the Japanese Prince and Princess in chivalry and courtliness; that’s how absolute power feels like. On July 7, 20014, he ordered District Commissioners to grab land from traditional chiefs; that’s how abuse of power is like. Everywhere he went, he was met by enthusiastic crowds, at times with chants of “Kabimba for presidency;” that’s how power corrupts completely.

Panic in the Sata family

Aware of Kabimba’s rise, Mulenga devised a stratagem—a coup-de-grace. He left the country for South Korea and a possible surreptitious trip to Israel to inform his ailing father the country was gone, and that he was as good as ousted. There was panic in the Sata family. “The working holiday” was over and the search for better medical attention abandoned. It was time to fly back to State House.

The return trip was well orchestrated by Mulenga and a handful of his foot soldiers. At the Lusaka District it was announced that Sata was well and would be returning from his working holiday. News quickly spread that Sata would be arriving on July 4, 2014. All the while, Mulenga’s men organized transport to the airport and bought opaque beer to celebrate the return of their leader. It worked. Like the chameleon they are, PF cadres abandoned Kabimba and thronged the airport only to be met by Mulenga Sata and loud chants of “Vote Mulenga in 2016!”

Four days later, on July 8, 2014, it was reported that Sata was back at State House. Kabimba could not believe the turn of events. He was not expecting the president back—not so soon—not at all. Knowing Kabimba, he was getting ready to announce his cabinet—Vice President Fred Mmembe, Minister of Justice Mutembo Nchito, Minister of Tourism Sylvia Masebo, Minister of Finance Rajan Mahtani, Minister of Home Affairs Geoffrey Chuumbwe, Minister of Education Willie Nsanda…

Upon arrival, Sata, who was on a strict regimen prescribed by Israeli doctors, went straight to bed. His symptoms were not unusual for persons with heart problems or cancer. He therefore was to have more rest and less work. This meant that he was to have few or no guests and avoid the public as much as possible. It is speculated that whenever Sata felt better Mulenga, close members of the family, and confidants like Chikwanda and Lungu urged him to fire Kabimba.

Within days of arrival Sata snatched the instruments of power from Kabimba. In as far as he is concerned they belong to his son Mulenga. For Kabimba, the post of honor suddenly became the post of shame. On August 28, 2014, he fell from grace. And that was his downfall. Next on the chopping block is Guy Scott. The question is how do we stop the Sata dynasty? Watch this space.

By Field Ruwe

Field Ruwe is a US-based Zambian media practitioner, historian, author, and a doctoral candidate. Learn more about him on his website www.aruwebooks.com. On it you shall access his autobiography, articles, and books. Contact him, blog, or join in the debate. ©Ruwe2012.