ZAMBIA’S Supreme Court has declared founding president Kenneth Kaunda a Zambian citizen, ending a protracted battle that prevented the independence leader from contesting the 1996 general election. Kaunda, 76, ruled the former British colony from independence in 1964 until he was ousted as president by Frederick Chiluba in multi-party elections in 1991. In 1999 Kaunda, born in Zambia to missionary parents from Malawi, was even declared stateless after the High Court upheld a private citizen’s petition that he was a foreigner who had governed illegally. – Reuters