By Brian Matambo – Lusaka, Zambia

On September 12, 2025, Zambians tuned in to hear President Hakainde Hichilema open the Fifth Session of the Thirteenth National Assembly. They expected accountability, direction, and truth. Instead, they witnessed a performance, Parliament turned into a propaganda rally, where facts were bent, half-truths were inflated into triumphs, and deliberate deceptions were dressed as history-making achievements.

In an earlier analysis, we documented how the President distorted Zambia’s progress in agriculture, energy, traditional leadership, infrastructure, and copper production, claiming “first time in 50 or 60 years” where the record proves otherwise. But two further areas demand deeper scrutiny: the rule of law and the state of Parliament. These go beyond exaggeration. They reveal a leader attempting to re-engineer reality itself.

RULE OF LAW: ABDUCTIONS, FEAR, AND SELECTIVE JUSTICE
Hichilema told the nation that “for the first time in 60 years, citizens enjoy full rights and freedoms without fear.” The statement is not only false, it is insulting to the victims of a frightening pattern of abductions, intimidation, and political persecution that has scarred Zambia in recent years.

The most chilling case was that of High Court Judge Wilfred Muma. When Judge Muma refused to recuse himself from the politically sensitive murder trial of PF Deputy Secretary General Mumbi Phiri, he was pressured with false criminal charges, accused of mishandling land allocation under the Lands and Deeds Registry Act. Chief Justice Mumba Malila allegedly called him, advising him to step down because “the system” could not allow an impartial verdict. Judge Muma refused. Days later, he was abducted, driven to the crocodile-infested Zambezi River under the cover of midnight, and thrown in to die. Against all odds, he survived. Instead of protection, he faced dismissal as a High Court Judge by the President himself.

Judge Muma is not alone. The catalogue of abductions under Hichilema’s watch includes:
• Petauke Central MP Emmanuel “Jay Jay” Banda in 2024.
• Senior PF official Rizwan Patel in Eastern Province.
• Sun Pharmaceuticals directors Vinod and Uddit Sadhu.
• Former Ambassador to Ethiopia Emmanuel Mwamba, tortured and humiliated.
• Francis Kapwepwe, known as “Why Me,” forcibly taken from Zimbabwe without following international legal protocols.
• Chingola businessman Tony Konga Sakashenda, abducted in January 2025.

These are not isolated incidents. They form a pattern, a climate of fear that mocks the President’s assurances of freedom.

Meanwhile, Hichilema boasts of a decisive fight against corruption. Yet the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) and Drug Enforcement Commission (DEC) focus heavily on opposition figures, while corruption allegations within his own administration go unaddressed. Procurement scandals and questionable state-linked contracts fester without accountability. Transparency International Zambia warned in 2024 that public confidence in anti-corruption efforts remains low, precisely because justice appears selective.

This is not the rule of law. It is rule by fear.

PARLIAMENT: CAPTURED AND COMPROMISED
The President also declared that “for the first time, Parliament is fully independent.” The record again tells a different story.

Executive interference in Parliament is not only alive, it is deepening. The most striking example is the relentless push for Bill 7. Even after the courts ruled against it, the executive, working hand in hand with the Speaker, continued to bend constitutional limits in order to push the legislation forward. This is not independence, it is capture.

The government has also resorted to undemocratic maneuvers to weaken the opposition. Frivolous legal cases are brought against MPs, their seats declared vacant, and ruling party candidates swept into office through by-elections plagued with allegations of rigging and intimidation. Each manufactured vacancy tilts Parliament further toward one-party dominance, eroding the very pluralism that democracy requires.

Outside Parliament, the civic space is also closing. Opposition rallies are disrupted, critical voices are silenced, and civil society organisations face mounting restrictions. Constitutional lawyer John Sangwa, SC, has warned bluntly that Zambia is experiencing “a shrinking democratic space,” where the executive operates above the law and institutions are weakened “by design.”

PROPAGANDA IN THE PEOPLE’S HOUSE
The deliberate deceptions in Hichilema’s speech matter because they strike at the heart of democracy. To claim freedom while citizens are abducted, to claim independence while Parliament is bent, is not simply spin, it is a strategy. The aim is to flood the public with “first time ever” narratives until the repetition itself becomes reality, crowding out the facts.

Parliament is not a campaign stage. It is the people’s house. To turn it into a propaganda rally is to strip it of dignity and to deny citizens the honest reckoning they deserve.

Hichilema’s method is clear: exaggerate, distort, repeat. But deception, once unmasked, carries its own cost. The question is whether Zambians will accept the illusion or demand that truth, not propaganda, governs the nation.