Iris Kaingu, the independent parliamentary candidate for Mwandi, has revealed that President Hakainde Hichilema offered her a government appointment weeks ago in exchange for withdrawing from the race, an offer she says she rejected at the time because she refused to be “bought or sold.”

Speaking from Mwandi the morning after the President addressed residents in the constituency, Kaingu said she had regarded the conversation as private until he referred to it publicly. “I thought that our conversation was one that was had in private, that none of what we discussed was going to make it to social media,” she said. “But alas, you, Mr President, mentioned our phone call.”

She said the approach had begun before the President spoke to her directly, when he contacted her father and asked him to persuade her against standing. Her father, she said, told the President he was dealing with a grown woman capable of deciding for herself. The President then called Kaingu directly, roughly two months earlier and after nominations had already closed. She said he guaranteed her a government appointment, citing her standing as a young woman, and a place on the UPND’s national mobilisation and campaign team, if she withdrew her candidature.

Kaingu said she declined both offers then and has not reconsidered since, describing the moment as a test of principle rather than politics. “I am a politician. I seek this office because of servitude,” she said. “I want to be the leader that my people expect me to be, not one person that can be bought or sold.” She admitted the offer had tested her resolve, given the state of the economy, but said her commitment to Mwandi outweighed it. “All these things do not amount to the love I have for the people of Mwandi,” she said. “In this economy, I don’t know that many people who would have said no.”

Her disclosure follows a weekend visit by Hichilema to Mwandi, during which he urged residents to back the UPND’s adopted candidate, Sibeso Sefulo Kakoma, described her independent bid as a sign of greed, and told the crowd that “working alone aikona mani” was unacceptable. Kaingu said his account of the conversation was incomplete. “You should have told the people yesterday what it is you offered me that I said no to,” she said, adding that a one-sided version of events was not good enough for the public to judge fairly.

Kaingu tied her refusal to conditions she said had persisted in Mwandi for years, arguing that no appointment could compensate for what residents were living through. She cited unsafe drinking water, an ungraded 120-kilometre road, women giving birth in oxcarts or at home without maternity care, and the death of a woman in Mavumbu ward during a power cut, when health workers were forced to use a mobile phone torch to locate a vein for treatment. “For as long as the people consume this water, Mr President, I say no to your offer,” she said. “For as long as the children are walking more than twenty kilometres to school, Mr President, I say no.”

She also raised the record of the outgoing Mwandi MP, whom the UPND is fielding again, saying five years in office had left constituents disappointed, and questioned why the President had used his visit to campaign against her rather than account for 2021 pledges she said remained unfulfilled. She disputed the description of Western Province as UPND’s stronghold, noting the province had backed the party even in opposition yet remained, in her words, at the bottom of provincial development rankings. She further pointed out that several sitting UPND figures, including Sunday Chanda, Kampamba Mulenga and Thomas Sipalo, had themselves come from the Patriotic Front, questioning why her own background in the party had been singled out.

On the economy, Kaingu said official indicators bore little relation to household realities. “It doesn’t make economic sense, Mr President, to have a single digit inflation rate, but the cost of living is still very high,” she said, calling for a shift away from what she described as “an economy of spreadsheets.” She also noted that no courtesy call had been paid to the senior chief of the Mulovezi, Mwandi and Sesheke area during the presidential visit, describing it as a departure from custom.

Kaingu thanked independent candidates who had resisted pressure to withdraw, naming Gary Nkombo directly, and appealed to donor organisations to help bring safe water to Mwandi. She closed by telling residents that the coming national vote offered a choice that comes only once every five years, and urged them to use it.

Neither State House nor the UPND had issued a further response to Kaingu’s disclosures at the time of publication.

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