THE BETRAYAL OF TRUST: GARRY NKOMBO’S VOTE AGAINST BILL 7 EXPOSES HIS RECKLESS AMBITION 13th June, 2026.By Staff Reporter Loyalty in politics is not measured by smiles during rallies or praise-singing in party uniforms. It is measured in the quiet moments of decision when a single vote can either fortify a government fighting for national […]

THE BETRAYAL OF TRUST: GARRY NKOMBO’S VOTE AGAINST BILL 7 EXPOSES HIS RECKLESS AMBITION

13th June, 2026.
By Staff Reporter

Loyalty in politics is not measured by smiles during rallies or praise-singing in party uniforms. It is measured in the quiet moments of decision when a single vote can either fortify a government fighting for national transformation or fracture it for selfish gain.

When President Hakainde Hichilema today revealed that four former UPND Members of Parliament namely Garry Nkombo, Elijah Muchima, Elias Mubanga, and Newton Samakai voted against Bill 7, he did not just name rebels. He exposed a cancer of disloyalty that threatens the very foundation of the UPND’s mandate.

For Garry Nkombo, the man who once stood shoulder to shoulder with President Hakainde Hichilema in the trenches of opposition and also when UPND took over power, his refusal to vote for Bill 7 was not an act of conscience. It was an act of calculated treachery.

What makes Nkombo’s betrayal particularly venomous is the timing and the pretext. Bill 7 was not a peripheral motion, it was a cornerstone of the UPND’s legislative agenda, designed to unlock development and close legal loopholes that have strangled progress for decades.

To vote against it was to vote against the President, the cabinet, and the millions of Zambians who elected this government to deliver change. But Nkombo, emboldened by delusions of grandeur, chose to sabotage his own house.

And now, he dares to speak of representing the people of Mazabuka as an independent. This is the ultimate irony, a man who cannot honor a party ticket, who cannot respect the collective will of the administration he swore to support, now claims he stands for “the people.”

The people of Mazabuka are not fools. They know that an independent Nkombo is not a champion of their interests but a wounded politician nursing a vendetta.

Let us be clear: voting against your own government on a flagship bill is not dissent. It is desertion. The people of Mazabuka sent Garry Nkombo to Parliament on the UPND ticket, funded by UPND resources and mobilized by UPND cadres. To turn around and position himself as an independent is to spit on that trust.

Nkombo knows that without the UPND, he carries no political weight. His sudden infatuation with “independence” is not principle, it is the tantrum of a man who chose disloyalty and now wants to rebrand his betrayal as bravery.

President Hichilema has shown remarkable restraint, but the message is unmistakable: the UPND is not a zoo for loose cannons. The four MPs who voted against Bill 7 must be held accountable by their constituents.

As for Mazabuka, the choice is stark. Will they stand with a disloyal son who sabotages his own government’s flagship bill or will they reaffirm their commitment to the leadership that is actually building roads, hospitals and schools?

Garry Nkombo’s political obituary will be written not by his enemies, but by his own hand. You cannot claim to love the people while stabbing the leader they trust. You cannot beg for an independent ticket after torching the only party that gave you relevance.

Mazabuka is watching. And history will remember that Garry Nkombo did not fall because of politics but he fell because of disloyalty.