UPND Secretary General, Imenda, accused of attempts to usurp role of local govt minister

Patriotic Front (PF) Shiwang’andu Member of Parliament, Stephen Kampyongo, has accused United Party for National Development (UPND) Secretary General, Batuke Imenda, of planning to usurp the Ministerial powers of Local Government and Rural Development Minister Garry Nkombo through backdoor means.

Imenda had revealed recently during a tour of Muchinga Province that Constituency Development Fund (CDF) for Shiwang’andu Constituency had remained largely unutilized with pupils in schools still sitting on the floor despite the constituency being allocated CDF money to procure desks.

In an interview with Zambia, Monitor upon his return from Uganda, where he had gone on Parliamentary duties, Kampyongo said Mr. Imenda had no mandate with regards to CDF implementation and was talking off point to criticize civil Servants with regards to such projects.

The Parliamentarian had attributed the slow pace in the implementation of the CDF projects for both 2022 and 2023 in his constituency to UPND party cadres who allegedly stormed Council offices in the District demanding to be hired as contractors.

He said this confusion had resulted in the local authority delaying in implementing the already approved CDF projects and they have been forced to re-advertise the projects.

“Now that the CDF projects have been approved after being re-advertised, I will ensure that the implementation of projects by the Council are expedited because I believe in service to the people and no wonder I have served as MP for this long,” Kampyongo said.

He said Shiwang’andu has never had any audit query since he assumed office as Member of Parliament 12 years ago and this scenario will continue because he is a firm believer in delivering services to the people.

“We had a number of UPND cadres who have never even constructed a toilet who went to lock up council offices demanding to be given contracts and this in itself held the process by the council to award any tenders and they had to re-advertise the tenders twice,” Kampyongo said.

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