MONDAY, 4.00PM:
IN an unexpected turn in the Lusaka High Court on Monday, the state dropped all charges against former Zambian president Kenneth Kaunda, after which Judge Japhta Banda declared Kaunda a free man.
“It’s great, it’s great,” declared Zambia’s 74-year-old founding father as hundreds of his supporters broke through a police cordon to celebrate his discharge and release.
Attorney-general Bonaventure Mutale told Banda the state was dropping all charges against Kaunda and the ex-president’s personal bodyguard, Mofyci Kaulungombe. Kaunda was charged with misprision of treason (failure to inform authorities of knowledge of a treasonous act) relating to a failed coup attempt by junior army officers last October 28.
Kuanda, who was in South Africa at the time of the coup attempt, was arrested on December 25 a few days after returning to Zambia. He was first imprisoned, then placed under house arrest.
Still facing charges over the coup bid are the army captain Steven Lungu, alias Captain Solo, regarded as its main author, and the leader of the opposition Zambian Democratic Congress party, Dean Mung’omba. Also among the accused are Princess Nakatindi Wina, who headed the women’s section of Chiluba’s MMD.
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