LUSAKA – Nshamba Mulondwe Muzungu has taken an unusual route into the leadership of Zambia’s National Assembly. The newly elected Independent Member of Parliament for Mufumbwe has moved from a career spanning journalism, communication, law and parliamentary administration to one of the highest procedural offices in the House, after being elected Second Deputy Speaker of […]

LUSAKA – Nshamba Mulondwe Muzungu has taken an unusual route into the leadership of Zambia’s National Assembly.

The newly elected Independent Member of Parliament for Mufumbwe has moved from a career spanning journalism, communication, law and parliamentary administration to one of the highest procedural offices in the House, after being elected Second Deputy Speaker of the National Assembly.

Muzungu was elected during the First Sitting of the First Session of the Fourteenth National Assembly, defeating fellow Independent MP for Chipangali West, Vincent Mwale.

The election followed his victory in the August 2026 General Election, when he captured the Mufumbwe parliamentary seat as an Independent candidate. Parliament now lists him as the Member of Parliament for Mufumbwe.

His election to the deputy speakership means that a man who spent years working around Parliament and reporting on parliamentary affairs is now part of the team responsible for presiding over the institution.

But who exactly is Nshamba Muzungu?

A journalist who moved into law

Before becoming an MP, Muzungu built a professional career around communication, journalism and public affairs.

His professional background includes work within the National Assembly, where he served in a senior media and communications role.

Parliament’s own publications show Muzungu bylined on parliamentary stories as far back as 2023 and 2024, including reports on the Parliamentary Christian Caucus, parliamentary programmes and the Speaker’s activities.

He was also serving as Senior Media Liaison Officer for the National Assembly before leaving the institution to contest the Mufumbwe parliamentary seat in 2026.

That experience meant Muzungu was not coming to Parliament as an outsider unfamiliar with how the institution works.

He had already spent years observing and communicating parliamentary business from inside the institution.

Then came the law

Muzungu is also a qualified lawyer.

According to his professional profile, he holds a Bachelor of Laws degree from the University of Zambia and is an Advocate of the High Court of Zambia.

That legal background gives another dimension to his new parliamentary responsibility.

The Speaker and Deputy Speakers do not simply preside over debates. Their work involves applying the Constitution, parliamentary Standing Orders, procedure and established practice while ensuring that proceedings are conducted according to the rules of the House.

Muzungu’s combination of legal training and parliamentary experience therefore becomes part of his professional story as he assumes the new position.

Communication and media took him beyond Zambia

His academic background also extends beyond law.

Muzungu holds a Master of Arts degree in Communication and Media Studies from the University of Hong Kong, where he was based from 2013 to 2014. He was awarded a scholarship through the university’s Journalism and Media Studies Centre.

He also participated in the inaugural Emerging Leaders Programme at the University of Cape Town’s Graduate School of Public Policy and Development Practice in 2015.

That combination — law, journalism and public policy — has been a recurring feature of Muzungu’s professional career.

He was already inside Parliament before becoming an MP

Perhaps the most interesting part of Muzungu’s story is that he entered elected politics after already spending years working within the institution he will now help preside over.

As a National Assembly communications official, he was involved in explaining parliamentary proceedings to the public and media.

His name appears repeatedly in Parliament’s official publications as the author of reports on parliamentary business.

In May 2024, for example, he wrote about a National Assembly training programme for journalists, which focused on parliamentary procedures, the role of MPs, the authority of the Speaker, Standing Orders and legislative processes.

In another Parliament publication, he reported on the Speaker’s activities and parliamentary programmes.

He was also quoted by other media outlets in his capacity as National Assembly Senior Media Liaison Officer when communicating Parliament’s position on procedural and institutional matters.

So, by the time Muzungu decided to contest Mufumbwe, he already understood the institution from the inside.

The move into elective politics

That changed in 2026.

Muzungu left his parliamentary communications position and contested the Mufumbwe seat as an Independent candidate.

He won.

Parliament’s current records identify him as the Mufumbwe MP, while the constituency’s local authority also lists him among the MPs elected for the 2026–2031 term.

His victory was also part of a wider increase in the number of Independent MPs elected to the 14th National Assembly.

Zambian Eye reported previously that 20 Independent candidates won parliamentary seats in the 2026 election, representing the highest number of Independents in the National Assembly since the return to multiparty politics.

Muzungu is among those 20. His Father Mlundwe Muzungu senior is a veteran politician from Zambia’s Independence struggle, UNIP where he served as MP for the same Mufumbwe. He is now a member of the ruling party, UPND.

From the backbench to the chair

His election as Second Deputy Speaker now takes that journey another step.

The National Assembly has three presiding officers: the Speaker, the First Deputy Speaker and the Second Deputy Speaker.

Nelly Butete Kashumba Mutti was returned as Speaker, while Attractor Malungo Chisangano retained the position of First Deputy Speaker. Both were elected unopposed after no competing nominations were filed.

Muzungu becomes the new Second Deputy Speaker, succeeding Moses Moyo.

Unlike the Speaker, who is elected under the constitutional provisions governing that office, the Second Deputy Speaker is chosen from among elected Members of Parliament.

That means Muzungu has gone from being one of the newly elected MPs to becoming part of the leadership that will preside over the House.

What his background could mean for the job

There is no need to predict how Muzungu will perform in the new office.

But his professional record provides some context for the responsibilities now before him.

He has worked as a journalist and communications professional.

He has legal training.

He has studied communication and media at postgraduate level.

He has worked within Parliament and dealt with parliamentary procedure and public communication.

And he has now entered the House as an elected Independent MP.

That combination gives him experience from several sides of the parliamentary environment: communicating parliamentary business to the public, understanding legal and procedural issues, working within the institution and, now, participating in it as an elected representative.

A new chapter

Muzungu’s election is therefore more than the appointment of a new parliamentary office holder.

It marks the latest stage of a career that has moved between the media, law, public communication, parliamentary administration and elective politics.

The man who once reported and communicated what happened inside Parliament will now have a seat on the platform from which parliamentary proceedings are presided over.

His immediate challenge will be to make that transition from communicating parliamentary procedure to applying it.

For a journalist trained in law who spent years working inside Parliament before becoming an elected MP, it is an unusually full circle.

Zambian Eye will follow how Muzungu’s new role develops as the 14th National Assembly begins its work.