Former Lusaka Province Bowman Lusambo has advised US Vice President Kamala Harris to desist from promoting gay rights when she visits Zambia this week.
Mr. Lusambo said Mrs Harris risks being arrested if she promotes gay rights in Zambia as the act is a criminal offence.
In a statement welcoming Mrs Harris to Zambia, Mr. Lusambo said the US Vice President should respect Zambia’s stance on the issue.
He has also challenged President Hakainde Hichilema to use Mrs Harris’s visit to Zambia to assert the new deal government’s stance on gay rights.
“ We further wish to challenge President Hichilema as he holds talks with Vice President Harris at State House to look her in the eye and without any hesitation, tell her to her face that Zambia will never accept same sex relationships. That is the greatest leadership test we are throwing at President Hichilema and if he fails this test, he would failed the current and future generations of Zambians,” part of the statement read.
Below is Mr Lusambo’s full statement
Kamala Harris welcome but…
In our African culture, we are taught to welcome all visitors. It is from this premise that we welcome the visit of US Vice President Kamala Harris to Zambia. We hope her handlers have included a brief stop in Livingstone for her to see our beautiful Mosi-O-Tunya Falls and a drive through Mpongwe, our home village to show her how our hard working people growth our food.
We also wish to use this opportunity to raise a few concerns over the new tide that Washington-Lusaka relations are taking. Under President Hichilema, it is clear to see that Zambia is on a crusade to over-please the West at the expense of other nations with whom we have a long standing relations.
Zambia now finds itself in a very precarious position in the geopolitical landscape which has now affected relations with other countries and the all important debt restructuring programme.
As Vice President Harris visits Lusaka, we wish to remind her and her host President Hichilema that Zambia shall at all times maintain its non aligned position on key global issues. Since 1964, we have ostensibly implemented this policy position and has served the country well. The mistake that President Hichilema and his Foreign Affairs Minister Stanley Kakubo made when they voted to condemn Russia at the UN summit shall never be repeated. It was foolhardy and should never happen again. Zambia has always been a friend of all nations including China and just for Mrs Harris’s own information, the modern airport she will land was built by the Chinese, the good road network she will be driven on from the airport to her hotel room was constructed by China and the conference room she will speak from was a gift from China.
We wish to also explicitly tell Vice President Harris that Zambia shall not be a pawn in the US’s fights with China and Russia. We will at all times protect our sovereign interests as a nation and as a people.
On the issue of propagating same sex relationships under the guise of human rights promotion, we wish to refer her to our Republican Constitution which clearly stipulates that we are a Christian nation and Christian principles abhors such acts. Vice President Harris must be reminded that same sex relationships might be accepted in the US but in Zambia, such acts will never be allowed. As dynamic as culture can be, there are some boundaries that cannot be crossed. We have accepted a lot of US influences such as language, fashion, music and democracy over the years but we will never adopt same sex relationships. We wish to ask her to accept our position the same way the US has been forced to accept the recent decision by the Ugandan Parliament over same sex relations. Further, Vice President Harris should be informed that she risks being arrested if she promotes gay rights whilst in Zambia like she did in Ghana as it is a criminal offence to promote unnatural acts in our beautiful nation.
We further wish to challenge President Hichilema as he holds talks with Vice President Harris at State House to look her in the eye and without any hesitation, tell her to her face that Zambia will never accept same sex relationships. That is the greatest leadership test we are throwing at President Hichilema and if he fails this test, he would failed the current and future generations of Zambians.
If she doesn’t listen to you, we will affect a citizens arrest on her. Abash gays, abash America abash hh
I think if she comes to sell us ndevu pa ndevu then we should trade polygamy with her. Coming to teach us what? when your own backyard is a mess. These people really believe that Africans are f00ls just because we are represented by cowards.
Illiterate, Archaic, Living in the Dark ages society
LIVE AND LET LIVE
You have gays in Zambia and you still want to receive teaching from the US vice president. Stupid *****s!
Lets include all sins in the constitution as a Christian nation:thou shall not commit adultery, thou shall not steal a few among other sins. Such must be a public discourse too???
Thou shall not hate nor judge. Who has no sin shall judge. Who is the person??
These are the REAL issues imwe naimwe!!
…I came to office with no illusions about the hurdles my country faced. In late 2020, at the height of the pandemic, Zambia became the first African country to default on its sovereign debt – though the global crisis was not to blame. Reckless borrowing and profligate corruption had gutted the economy. When my predecessor took power, debt stood at 32% of gross domestic product. By the time he left, it had ballooned to 120%. Before the election, food inflation had topped 30% while annual inflation stood at 25%; more than 40% of adults could afford only one meal a day. Panicked because the people would not take such deprivation any longer, the former president went into pork barrel overdrive, exacerbating the debt crisis…”
Do you think the vice President of the US will come all the way to Zambia and have at the top of her agenda gay issues?
There are far more important matters to discuss.
Its just simple minded people like Bowman and his friends who are obsessed about the topic.
Typical of Africans who major in the minor
There is now chaos and anarchy in Zambia. How can a politician behave like he is a social activist? Bowman Lusambo can easily cause some members of Zambian society to protest and put the U.S. Vice President in danger. We should be careful what we say when the country is receiving foreign dignitaries. So, what will Bowman do if V. P. Harris talks about gay rights as human rights — attack her? Will he ever secure a Visa to visit the USA?