Mundubile Rejects Militia Claims, Demands Independent Probe into Kafwaya Shooting

Brian Mundubile has rejected the government’s account of how Mutotwe Kafwaya died, saying the former Transport Minister was shot inside his own bedroom and describing allegations of a militia operating from his Kabulonga residence as false. In a statement issued Wednesday, the…

Brian Mundubile has rejected the government’s account of how Mutotwe Kafwaya died, saying the former Transport Minister was shot inside his own bedroom and describing allegations of a militia operating from his Kabulonga residence as false.

In a statement issued Wednesday, the Tonse-Pamodzi Alliance leader said he witnessed the shooting first-hand. He said his wife and other witnesses were present in the room and can corroborate his account.

“I was there. Mutotwe was shot inside my bedroom, right next to me,” Mundubile said.

Kafwaya served as MP for Lunte from 2016 to 2021 and held two Cabinet posts, first as Minister of Works and Supply, later as Minister of Transport and Communications. He died during a joint security operation at Mundubile’s residence on 14 August, a day after Zambia’s general election. Police say a Joint Task Force team, which included officers from the Drug Enforcement Commission, came under fire and returned it, fatally wounding an unidentified man later confirmed as Kafwaya. Eleven people were arrested at the scene.

Inspector General of Police Graphel Musamba confirmed Kafwaya’s death five days after the raid, following mounting pressure from his family, his lawyers and the public. Mundubile said the delay amounted to a serious denial of basic human dignity and rights to a grieving family. He said Kafwaya’s family, his colleagues and hundreds of concerned Zambians spent those five days asking where he was, and that his family approached the courts believing he was being detained, while authorities already knew he was dead.

Mundubile went further than a general dispute over the timeline. He said any account that materially contradicts what he and other witnesses saw in that room must now face rigorous independent scrutiny, and said the truth cannot be rewritten after the fact because it is inconvenient.

He was equally direct on the militia allegation. “There was no militia. There is no militia,” he said, arguing that people who provide professional close protection undergo training, and that training does not turn them into an insurgent group. Any firearms lawfully held by protection personnel must comply with Zambian law, he said, but legitimate security work cannot be relabelled an insurgency to fit a political narrative.

On claims that his property had been under observation since November over suspected weapons, Mundubile said no evidence of that surveillance has been produced. He argued that weapons now described publicly, but not present at his property, cannot be placed there after the fact by assertion alone. He pressed authorities to answer specific questions: what the alleged militia is said to have done, where its operations were, where its command structure was, and where the supporting evidence is.

Authorities have said the raid followed intelligence gathered after an earlier operation recovered K7.3 million, and that three of those arrested were former commandos with sniper and special-forces training. The Ministry of Defence initially denied Kafwaya had been shot at all, dismissing early reports as fabrication before police confirmed his death days later.

Mundubile also raised what he called an absence of basic acknowledgement from the authorities, that a Zambian MP, husband and father lost his life during an operation involving state security personnel. He said those who witnessed the shooting are now carrying the trauma of watching a friend and colleague killed, while others swept up in the raid remain in detention as what he called an extraordinary narrative is constructed around them. He said anyone accused of an offence should be charged lawfully, with evidence brought before a court, rather than held without due process.

Mundubile called for an independent, transparent and credible investigation, saying every witness must be heard, every firearm accounted for, and every forensic record preserved. He said the party would pursue truth and accountability through lawful institutions in Zambia and internationally, and reiterated that his movement would not be silenced or intimidated.

“We will proceed peacefully and to the letter of the law,” he said, extending condolences to Kafwaya’s wife, children and wider family.

Kafwaya’s wife, Dinis Ng’andu Kafwaya, has separately sought High Court leave to pursue habeas corpus proceedings on behalf of relatives she says remain in custody following the raid.