When Power Jails Itself: The Lesson HH Refuses to Learn On Kambwili

By Kapya Kaoma

Each time a Zambian leader turns the law into a weapon, history reloads it for revenge. President Hakainde Hichilema’s treatment of Chishimba Kambwili is not justice—it is déjà vu. The same prisons that swallow opponents today will one day open for those in power tomorrow.

The recent arrest of Patriotic Front (PF) figure Chishimba Kambwili—this time by the Immigration Department while he was already serving time—should make every Zambian pause and ask, what kind of justice system have we become?

The charges reek of political vengeance. The government’s true aim seems clear–to block Kambwili from seeking medical treatment abroad. That is not justice—it is fear masquerading as law. His “crime,” it appears, was simply preserving his own life. If the state had a legitimate case, why wait until his release was near? Why not charge him from the start? The answer is obvious—to ensure he suffers to the very end.

Sadly, those who wield power to humiliate others always forget one enduring truth, power turns.

I recall the days of Frederick Chiluba, who also used courts and prisons as instruments of punishment. Like Hichilema today, Chiluba mistook democracy for permanence. He mocked and persecuted men like Kenneth Kaunda and Dean Mung’omba, reducing justice to a personal weapon. The courts obeyed him. The police served his whims.

Yet the system he commanded later devoured him. Who can forget the image of Chiluba—stripped of dignity, humiliated before the nation, his legacy in ruins? The hunter had become the hunted. He died a broken man, undone by the machinery he built to crush others.

President Hichilema should take heed: he does not own the police, the courts, or the prisons. No president does. These institutions serve power, not principle. They always bow to whoever sits on the throne—until the next ruler comes along, they switch allegiance as easily as flipping a switch. It is what it is–the Constitution is nothing when it comes to the President. He is the LAW, the Police and the Courts!

This is the curse of Zambian politics– impunity without memory. Those in power forget that authority is never permanent. It is borrowed, and history always demands it back. Once the votes are counted, the new winner becomes all powerful.

I write not in anger, but in warning. Today it is Kambwili. Tomorrow it could be Hichilema and his allies. When another leader rises, the same officers and judges will find new targets. They will dust off old files and reopen the same cells for those who once commanded them.

To imagine that scandals surrounding the Constituency Development Fund (CDF) will disappear when HH leaves office is wishful thinking. The questionable dealings within the Anti-Corruption Commission, the Drug Enforcement Commission, and other state agencies will not vanish—they will return with a vengeance. When that day comes, many who now celebrate the downfall of others will face their own reckoning.

This is our national tragedy: those who shout “power forever!” soon cry from behind prison walls. Leadership is temporary; accountability is eternal.

If history teaches anything, it is this–the same hand that turns the key today may one day rattle the same lock from inside. I pray it will not come to that. But judging by the vindictiveness and lack of compassion marking this administration, it may take a modern-day Mother Teresa to let Hichilema and his circle walk Zambia’s streets freely once their season of power has passed. I will be watching.