KALABA’S NARROW INTEREST CANNOT MASK MUNDUBILE’S MOMENTUM By Professor Namukolo Miyanda, Pan-Africanist and Governance Expert _12th July 2026_ Harry Kalaba recently said, “Brian Mundubile could be a good person, but I have seen some bad people from the PF government, who have regrouped around him. Those people haven’t changed, and so I can’t join that […]

KALABA’S NARROW INTEREST CANNOT MASK MUNDUBILE’S MOMENTUM

By Professor Namukolo Miyanda, Pan-Africanist and Governance Expert

_12th July 2026_

Harry Kalaba recently said, “Brian Mundubile could be a good person, but I have seen some bad people from the PF government, who have regrouped around him. Those people haven’t changed, and so I can’t join that group.”

This is not political analysis. It is political jealousy dressed as principle. And it deserves to be answered with facts, not feelings.

A few months ago, Kalaba carried himself as the opposition candidate to watch. He believed he was safe from “mingalato” and from the weaponisation of state institutions that Brian Mundubile and others endured. He mistook that quiet season for electoral strength. But politics does not reward comfort. It rewards courage. While Kalaba preserved himself, Mundubile faced persecution, court battles, and state harassment, and he kept standing. The Zambian people watched. They know the difference between a leader tested by fire and one sheltered from rain. It is unfortunate that Harry Kalaba, a political leader of the Citizens First, has failed to see and appreciate that Brian Mundubile is a mature, responsible, caring and progressive political leader who can rule Zambia far much better than anyone else if voted into office as Republican President on the 13th August 2026.

Today the ground has shifted. Brian Mundubile and Makebi Zulu have emerged as a formidable opposition force. Their rallies are drawing Zambians of every origin, tribe, and class. That is what has unsettled Kalaba. His words are not about “bad people from PF.” They are the words of a man watching his own relevance evaporate like mist in the morning.

Kalaba says he resigned from the PF government because he “saw bad things happening.” If that is his moral standard, then he should applaud those who either stayed to reform from within or built a new platform to correct past wrongs. The Tonse-Pamodzi Alliance is not a reunion of the old PF. It is a purpose vehicle that has attracted new blood: professionals, youth, traditional leaders, and citizens who had given up on politics. To condemn everyone around Mundubile with one brush is lazy and dishonest. If Kalaba truly put “Citizens First,” he would judge people by their present actions and manifesto, not by a political address from 2021.

More telling is the state of Kalaba’s own house. He has not demonstrated the capacity to win a single ward, constituency, or province countrywide. His inner circle is shrinking. Isolation is setting in. A leader who cannot hold his party together lacks the moral standing to lecture others on association.

Consider Hon. Chishimba Kambwili. He is contesting on his own party ticket as Member of Parliament, yet he made the mature decision to join the Brian Mundubile team. He shares campaign platforms freely with Mundubile and Zulu because he put country above ego. That is what “Citizens First” should mean in practice. Kalaba should take a lesson from his elder brother. Pride is not a political strategy. The citizens Kalaba claims to champion are now asking whether he understands his own party’s name. If he did, he would be with his brothers Mundubile and Zulu, building the alternative Zambia demands.

Kalaba is still debating whether to join Mundubile. The country is no longer waiting for his answer. The urgent debate is how to ensure millions of Zambians turn out on 13th August 2026, how to educate them on vote protection, and how to demand professionalism from every actor in the electoral cycle. With 32 days to voting day, this is not the hour for procrastination or press statements soaked in envy. It is the hour for intelligent decisions. The momentum of the Mundubile-Zulu ticket has overtaken Kalaba like a Concorde jet in turbulent skies. You either get on board or you remain on the ground watching.

It is unfortunate that Kalaba treats politics like a pensionable job he is owed. Leadership is not an inheritance. It is earned. Zambians are yearning for development, jobs, a lower cost of living, and social cohesion. They want a purpose vehicle that can deliver. Today, that vehicle is the NRPUP/Tonse-Pamodzi Alliance under Brian Mundubile. Kalaba had a chance to be part of history. Instead, he chose to be a footnote written in bitterness.

Everyone is entitled to opinion and association. But the arguments Kalaba relies on are superfluous and reveal a poor reading of the political moment. They reflect jealousy, not judgment. The people of Zambia have moved. The Tonse-Pamodzi Alliance is moving. The only person standing still is Harry Kalaba, arguing with the wind while the train leaves the station.

On 13th August 2026, Zambia will speak. Let no one claim they were not warned to choose the future over the past, unity over ego, and courage over comfort.