By Brian Matambo | Lusaka 

When the gavel fell in the Lusaka Magistrates’ Court sending Honourable Nakachinda to prison for defamation of the President, it did more than convict one man. It revealed the hypocrisy of a government that promised reform but instead resurrected the very law it repealed. 

Section 69 of the Penal Code, which criminalised defamation of the President, was repealed by Parliament in 2022. The repeal was hailed as a victory for democracy and free speech. Yet today, that same dead law has been dug up to silence one of the most outspoken defenders of the opposition. Honourable Nakachinda has been jailed under a law that no longer exists, punished for words spoken in defence of his party, his colleagues, and the integrity of Zambia’s democracy. 

The case that led to his imprisonment goes back to the time when Speaker Nelly Mutti sought to nullify nine Patriotic Front parliamentary seats. The matter was taken to the Constitutional Court, and that is where Honourable Nakachinda warned that President Hakainde Hichilema was allegedly meeting judges at night to influence the outcome. His statement was bold, perhaps uncomfortable, but it was political speech. It was made in the heat of a national dispute over the independence of the judiciary and the legitimacy of opposition representation in Parliament. 

Those nine MPs were Bowman Lusambo of Kabushi, Joseph Malanji of Kwacha, Mutotwe Kafwaya of Lunte, Sibongile Mwamba of Kasama Central, Luka Simumba of Nakonde, Allan Banda of Chimwemwe, Taulo Chewe of Lubansenshi, Kalalwe Mukosa of Chinsali, and Christopher Chibuye of Mkushi North. In the end, they retained their seats. The Constitutional Court ruled in their favour. It was not coincidence. It was partly the pressure that Honourable Nakachinda mounted, the courage to speak when silence would have meant surrender. 

Yet today, the man who stood for them is in jail, and the country pretends not to see what is happening. 

To understand how political this is, one only needs to compare it to the case of Fresher Siwale, who was charged under the same Section 69 in 2018 for allegedly defaming then President Edgar Lungu. Siwale’s case was discontinued because the law had been repealed. The courts rightly held that no one should be judged under a law that no longer exists. But in Honourable Nakachinda’s case, the State has refused to apply that same principle. This is not about law. It is about politics. It is about power. And it should be condemned by every person who claims to believe in freedom and fairness. 

There is something even more disturbing than the selective justice. It is the silence of those who should be speaking. Of the nine MPs whose seats Honourable Nakachinda defended, two eventually lost their positions under dubious circumstances. Both Bowman Lusambo and Joseph Malanji are now themselves in jail on unrelated charges, a reality that fits the wider pattern of a sustained and deliberate assault on PF strongmen. The others, Mutotwe Kafwaya, Sibongile Mwamba, Luka Simumba, Allan Banda, Taulo Chewe, Kalalwe Mukosa, and Christopher Chibuye, remain in Parliament, enjoying the stability that Honourable Nakachinda fought to protect. But not one of them has raised their voice for the man who defended them when it mattered most. 

It is cowardice disguised as caution. And the Patriotic Front cannot continue like this. Honourable Nakachinda has been the backbone of the party through two years of political hailstorms. He has held it together when others hid, when others defected, when the State turned every institution into a weapon. If the PF cannot stand for its own Secretary General, it stands for nothing. 

The silence of the party and its MPs is not strategy. It is surrender. It tells the system that intimidation works. It tells the country that courage no longer lives in the ranks of the opposition. But this is not just about one party or one man. It is about the rule of law. It is about whether the government that repealed Section 69 will be allowed to use it in secret to punish critics. 

Honourable Nakachinda’s imprisonment is therefore not a legal victory; it is a moral defeat for Zambia. It is proof that our democracy still depends on who holds the pen and not on what the Constitution says. Justice cannot be retroactive, and freedom cannot be selective. A government that jails opponents under a repealed law has lost its moral compass. 

It is time for every voice that values liberty to say enough. Because today it is Honourable Nakachinda. Tomorrow, it will be anyone who dares to speak truth in a country that is slowly forgetting what freedom sounds like.