By Nalubinge Ngwende
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| Kenneth Kaunda |
Zambia’s first
president Kenneth Kaunda was, is and will forever remain a tyrant whose irreparable
damage to the country’s political and economic culture will never have anyone
take responsibility for, unless the country stops extoling this man and break
away from his ways.
The first step to
severing our present and future from Kaunda’s bad examples of managing this
country is to stop seeing him as an infallible hero and ask him to apologise.
A hero, he is, for
being among the freedom fighters that fought for our independence. But a closer
look at how he dispensed his power as the country’s first President, the heroism
is lost. Kaunda becomes a villain that lost Zambia’s battles to safeguard
democracy and ensure sustainable economic growth, leaving the country in an
abyss of economic darkness and political intolerance.
As first President
of this Southern African Nation that had vibrant and intelligent opposition
political leadership and seen as a very wealth newly Independent nation,
Kaunda’s arrogance to monopolise/personalise ideas of running the country did extensive
damage to democracy and economic activity of the independent Zambia.
Kaunda authored and
engraved the economic miseries the country grapples with today for the 27 years
he remained President. Today at 50 years of Independence, the country still
struggles to rewrite and offer solutions to the problems that KK created during
his over two decades rule.