from ARNOLD MULENGA in Lusaka, Zambia
Zambia Bureau
LUSAKA, (CAJ News) – THE stripping of the citizenship of a senior official of the main opposition alliance illustrates how the weaponisation of nationality remains a potent, recurring weapon of choice for successive Zambian governments determined to silence their critics.
It is a trend dubbed the foreignising of political opponents.
Weeks after President Hakainde Hichilema retained power following controversial elections, the government cancelled the national registration card (NRC) and passport belonging to Tonse-Pamodzi Alliance Secretary General, Celestine Mukandila, after determining that the documents were allegedly obtained through fraud, false declaration and misrepresentation.
The Zambian Department of Immigration arrested the 36-year-old politician and lawyer at his residence in Mapepe, Chilanga district, on August 20, exactly a week after the divisive polls.
The state alleges that he is a Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) national who obtained his Zambian identity documents fraudulently.
The revocation of his documents has effectively left the incarcerated lawyer stateless while he remains in custody.
Dickson Matembo, the Ministry of Home Affairs and Internal Security Permanent Secretary, stated that the cancelled documents are no longer valid for identification, travel or any official purpose.
“Any use of the cancelled documents may constitute an offence,” the notice stated.
It does not provide further details on the alleged fraud or the circumstances under which the documents were obtained.
His rights have already been violated after spending more than two weeks in custody without being granted police bond or appearing in court.
Opposition parties and civil rights groups broadly view the revocation of his citizenship as a politically motivated crackdown against the opposition, with several Tonse senior officials, including the losing candidate in the presidential election, Brian Mundubile, in detention on charges of treason.
This evokes memories of 1999, when Frederick Chiluba stripped founding president and his predecessor, Kenneth Kaunda, of his citizenship because his parents originated from Malawi (then Nyasaland), rendering him stateless.
This was seen as a politically motivated move by the then-ruling Movement for Multi-Party Democracy (MMD) to humiliate him and block his political involvement.
Following the latest incident affecting Mukandila, commentator Daves Kunda said, “In Zambian politics, the weaponisation of nationality is fast becoming a familiar and ominous script.”
He noted that, from the height of the Chiluba administration’s battles over nationality to the modern-day targeting of sharp legal minds in the opposition, successive governments have routinely reached into the state’s security apparatus to shrink democratic space.
“When the Ministry of Home Affairs and Internal Security issued a gazette revoking the nationality of Mukandila, it felt less like an isolated administrative penalty and more like a disturbing echo of the past.”
Mukandila clarified that he was born in 1990 in Lubumbashi, in the DRC. His mother was a Zambian citizen at the time of his birth, while his father was a Congolese citizen.
He said his maternal family had deep roots in the northern Luapula province, bordering the DRC.
“The fact that I was born outside Zambia does not, in itself, make me a foreigner,” Mukandila argued.
Zambia’s constitutional framework recognises citizenship by descent under Article 36 of the Constitution, providing that a person born outside Zambia is a citizen by descent if, at the date of that person’s birth, at least one parent was or is a citizen by birth or descent.
“I acquired Zambian citizenship by descent at birth through my Zambian mother. I did not apply to become Zambian as an adult, nor did I obtain my citizenship through naturalisation,” Mukandila explained.
He said he was “approximately 16 years old” when he became eligible for national registration.
“I was a child. I did not independently create my family history, determine my nationality or manufacture the circumstances of my birth.”
Chief Sokontwe of the Ushi people has publicly intervened to defend Mukandila against claims that he is Congolese.
The Hichilema-led United Party for National Development (UPND) said the implication of the identity document and passport being cancelled was that Mukandila ceased to be a Zambian and had to go back to “your country”.
It further rebuffed propositions for dialogue with the opposition to resolve the political crisis.
“So, when people talk about unity, let’s talk about unity as Zambians, not as Zambians with foreigners in politics,” UPND stated.
Dr Fred M’membe, president of the smaller opposition Socialist Party, noted how William Banda and John Chinula of Kaunda’s United National Independence Party (UNIP) also lost their citizenship after the party lost power to Chiluba’s MMD.
They were deported to Malawi, where Chinula eventually died.
The government of then Zambian president Levy Mwanawasa, who succeeded Chiluba in 2002, allowed Banda to return home.
M’membe said the cancellation or revocation of citizenship across African nations was a complex legal and political issue that has historically been used as a tool for political exclusion, national security enforcement or correcting fraudulent documentation.
Ivory Coast stripped former prime minister Alassane Ouattara of his nationality in 2000, arguing that his mother was originally from neighbouring Burkina Faso (then Upper Volta).
“This weaponisation of denationalisation often leaves individuals stateless or exiled,” M’membe said.
However, for Zambia, it indicates an erosion of democracy by a president, Hichilema, who suffered abuse at the hands of the past government, which jailed him under the same laws he pledged to repeal.
Yet he is fervently imposing on the opposition the same laws he fiercely opposed while in opposition.
– CAJ News