Zambia : Chief Mpepo Demands Answers Over Kafwaya's Killing

Chief Mpepo of Kanchibiya District in Northern Province has demanded that government reveal who killed former transport and communications minister Mutotwe Kafwaya, shot dead by soldiers during a raid on opposition leader Brian Mundubile‘s Kabulonga residence on August 14, hours after voting closed in the general election.

Addressing family members and village elders in Lunte during the post-burial rite known as Isambo lya Mfwa, Chief Mpepo said the chiefdom would not rest until it knew who authorised the killing. The traditional leader said both the family and the nation had a right to know who ordered the shooting, and why. No one, he said, had the right to take a life. Kafwaya was shot dead by soldiers during the operation at Mundubile’s residence, an operation government says uncovered weapons at the property.

“Tulefwaya ukwishiba uwamwipeye no koca ifyakufwala fyakwe no wamupele insambu. We demand to know who killed our son and who took away his clothes and burnt them. We want to know where those clothes are,” Chief Mpepo said.

Chief Mpepo pressed government to produce those weapons publicly, the way such discoveries have historically been handled. He said it was tradition and precedent that whenever such weapons are recovered, they are displayed to the nation. The chief’s demand strikes at a case that has remained unresolved since the night of the vote. Kafwaya, a former transport and communications minister, was killed inside a residence government has since linked to a treason investigation, with Mundubile among 18 suspects now in custody over the events of August 14.

“We cannot bury our son and remain in the dark. Government must give us answers. We just heard that they found weapons; let them show the nation those weapons they found on them. It is tradition and precedent that whenever they find such weapons, they display to the nation, but in Mutotwe’s killing we are still waiting to see the weapons they found that warranted the killing of our son,” Chief Mpepo said.

Chief Mpepo said the family could not find closure while basic questions about the raid remained unanswered. He said the chiefdom wanted to know not only who fired the shots, but under whose authority the operation was carried out. The demand for transparency extends beyond Kafwaya’s case alone. The State has restricted access to the 18 treason suspects, with the Zambia Correctional Service limiting visits to close relatives and lawyers only.

That directive affects Mundubile, his running mate Makebi Zulu, businessman Harry Valden Findlay, lawyer George Chisanga, retired Anglican Bishop Trevor Mwamba and others held on treason charges arising from the election. A check at Mukobeko Maximum Security Correctional Facility found relatives, journalists and members of the public blocked from entering the complex. Human rights activist Brebner Changala has called for transparency in how the cases are being handled. Findlay’s lawyer, Milner Katolo, said his legal team also needed to observe the condition of the other treason-accused persons while pursuing separate efforts to secure Findlay medical attention.

“We need to observe how they are, as well as Mr Findlay, Mr Chisanga, Mr Mundubile and others,” Katolo said.

Findlay himself intends to ask the High Court to order the State to allow him access to medical treatment, with Katolo saying his client is battling advanced diabetes and high blood pressure that the State has so far declined to treat. Those separate legal efforts, unfolding alongside Chief Mpepo’s demand, point to the same underlying question hanging over the operation of August 14: whether the State will account, in full public view, for what happened to the people caught up in it, living and dead. Government has taken responsibility for the shooting that killed Kafwaya. It has not yet responded publicly to the chief’s specific demands for the weapons to be displayed or for the chain of authority behind the operation to be disclosed.

For a community burying one of its own, the post-burial rite became the moment to formally place those questions on record. Chief Mpepo’s intervention adds a traditional authority’s voice to a case that, weeks after the shooting, still lacks a public account of how Kafwaya died. The chiefdom’s position is now clear: the burial has happened, but the accounting has not. Government’s next move is to respond to the chief’s demand, produce the weapons it says were recovered, and name who authorised the operation that killed Kafwaya.

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