Katele Kalumba Freed on Police Bond After Cyber Harassment Charge

Former Cabinet minister Dr Katele Kalumba has been charged with cyber harassment over remarks against President Hakainde Hichilema and released on police bond, a day after soldiers and plain-clothes police officers picked him up at his home in Chienge, Luapula Province. Police…

Former Cabinet minister Dr Katele Kalumba has been charged with cyber harassment over remarks against President Hakainde Hichilema and released on police bond, a day after soldiers and plain-clothes police officers picked him up at his home in Chienge, Luapula Province.

Police spokesperson Godfrey Chilabi confirmed the charge in an interview in Lusaka on Thursday evening. He said Dr Kalumba was arrested on Wednesday and taken to Kabwe in Central Province, where he was detained at Kabwe Central Police Station.

“Later today, he was officially charged and released on police bond awaiting court appearance. He was charged for a cyber harassment offence in relation to some remarks he made against the Republican President on September 10, 2026,” Mr Chilabi said.

Dr Kalumba, who served in the MMD government, was charged under the Cyber Crimes Act No. 4 of 2025. Police said the remarks were contained in a widely circulated social media post on 10 September, and that he is expected to appear before court in due course. The nature of the remarks was not disclosed.

The events in Chienge began in the early hours of Wednesday. His wife, Mrs Kalumba, said soldiers first went to Dr Kalumba’s lodge, which is next to the family home, around 04:00, but were denied access by the chief’s retainers.

A combined team of soldiers and plain-clothes police officers returned around midday. Mrs Kalumba said they picked up her husband at about 12:10, while he was with Headman Natende and Headman Semushi, and took him to Chienge Police Station. Officers were preparing to move him to Mansa, she said.

Her immediate worry was his health. Mrs Kalumba said the officers drove away without his heart medication, which she said he must take every day. “The medication they have left behind is important, it is non-negotiable for his health, he has to take it every day. This is sad,” she said.

She said Dr Kalumba is a known chronic patient with a heart condition and a spinal problem, and has a leg fracture that has only started healing and requires a special shoe. A journey by road would affect him, she said, because the family usually drives him to Mansa and flies him to Lusaka. His granddaughter was rushing to Mansa to take him his medicine.

Mrs Kalumba also raised concern over an incident involving her son, Akayombokwa Kalumba, who was attacked by an unknown person at a bar in Makeni Bonaventure in Lusaka using a carpenter’s saw. She said the attack followed a social media post claiming he had been shot dead, and that he sustained a cut and is undergoing treatment.

“I suspect it was a targeted attack. We suspect these are scare tactics and that these issues are related,” she said.

Separately, Dr Kalumba has been vocal about the country’s political tension. In a Facebook post, he urged President Hichilema to change direction following the arrest and detention of opposition presidential candidate Brian Mundubile, his running mate Makebi Zulu and 16 others on treason charges. It was not immediately clear whether that appeal is the post at the centre of the charge.

“Please, do not ignore this warning. The political climate is becoming dangerously tense. It does not have to remain so. You have the opportunity to change the direction of the national conversation,” he said.

He asked the President to consider releasing Mr Mundubile, Mr Zulu, Xavier Franklin Chungu and others held for political or politically related matters, particularly those who have not yet been brought before the courts. He also called for a conciliatory national indaba to promote peace and unity.

“I’m therefore asking you now, as one Zambian speaking directly to another, where charges are weak or politically coloured, allow the appropriate legal mechanisms to resolve them and then concentrate on governing,” Dr Kalumba said.

He said the President should not use campaign and election disagreements to punish critics, and should not treat the opposition as an enemy. “Let the courts do their work where there are genuine criminal matters. Let political opponents breathe,” he said.

Government has rejected claims that the law is being used against political opponents. Foreign Affairs Minister Mulambo Haimbe said in an interview in New York that those in detention face individual criminal charges rather than political persecution, and that every citizen remains innocent until proven guilty before a competent court.

For now, Dr Kalumba is on police bond, and police say he will appear before court in due course.