“No life is worth losing for power,” Chief Chisunka warns as funerals become flashpoints and party accuses police of standing by

Traditional leaders, a Catholic priest and an opposition party chairman have issued pointed warnings against rising political violence ahead of the 13 August general election.

Their intervention comes after two funerals in Eastern and Southern provinces this week descended into standoffs over party politics.

Chief Chisunka of the Ushi people of Luapula said no life is worth losing for the sake of power. He called on politicians to rein in their cadres before the country is set alight.

“We don’t have to lose lives just for certain people to cling to power. Peace needs to prevail because the country has been a beacon of hope,” the chief told The Mast.

He said it was unfortunate that parts of the nation were experiencing bloodshed in what he described as a Christian country. Politicians, he said, needed to sober up and tame their cadres before Zambia is drawn into wider conflict.

The Ushi traditional leader called on chiefs countrywide to rise to the occasion and denounce political violence wherever it occurs.

Catholic priest Father Gladson Phiri echoed the call. He said the church and traditional leaders are best placed to lead the fight against political violence because they deal directly with the citizens who go on to engage in political activity.

“The church and traditional leaders are the ones that should champion the fight against political violence because they usually deal with the masses who in turn engage in various political activities,” Fr Phiri said.

He said clergy and chiefs needed to engage both politicians and the electorate on the dangers of violence, warning that the country risked being set ablaze if the trend continues unchecked.

The warnings came in the same week that two funerals turned into flashpoints, illustrating how deeply campaign season has begun to intrude on ordinary community life.

In Aslot Township, Chipata District, mourners stormed out of Mgwelo Maplot Cemetery on Wednesday. The walkout came the moment a UPND official was called upon to address the gathering.

Both the ruling party and the opposition National Reconciliation Party for Unity and Prosperity had contributed toward funeral arrangements for the deceased. UPND gave K400; NRPUP reportedly covered other costs, including transport.

The solemn atmosphere shattered when director of ceremony Goldwin Soko announced that the UPND representative would give remarks. Without warning, a section of mourners rose and left the graveyard in a show of disapproval.

“When funerals are politicised and become battlegrounds, then we have a problem,” Alakwisa Jere, a Chipata-based mourner who witnessed the scene, told The Mast.

The Chipata walkout came barely a day after a similar episode in Mazabuka.

There, District Commissioner Oliver Mulomba was booed by angry residents on Tuesday and forced to abandon his speech. The crowd accused him of campaigning for President Hakainde Hichilema and the UPND at a funeral.

Mr Mulomba had to leave the scene to avoid possible harm.

Jere warned that the Chipata and Mazabuka incidents were a sign of what could unfold as campaigning intensifies in the final stretch before polling day. Leaders from both UPND and opposition parties have since appealed for calm, urging cadres and officials to keep politics out of funerals and other community gatherings.

Separately, Leadership Movement national chairperson David Kalumba accused the Zambia Police Service of failing to act against known perpetrators of political violence.

“Police officers have become spectators of violence,” he said in a statement.

He said his party had campaigned throughout the country encouraging people to reject violence and demand accountability, but that police had “betrayed people it is supposed to protect by failing to stop violence.”

Kalumba said no one should celebrate the destruction of public and private property currently taking place in parts of the country at the hands of political cadres. Zambians, he warned, must reject political violence at all costs, because the aftermath would be difficult to rebuild from.

He stressed that his own party was not a violent movement but a pro-poor organisation focused on building a Zambia with equal job and business opportunities for all.

“Our people have told us that all they want is peace, unity and development, and that is the message we are preaching,” he said.

The Leadership Movement chairman said his party had learnt a great deal on the 2026 campaign trail. Poverty, underdevelopment and lack of opportunity, he said, remain a disease afflicting many communities, particularly in rural areas he accused previous leadership of excluding from the national development agenda.

“Our people in rural areas need development but they cannot see it because previous leadership have excluded them from national development agenda,” Kalumba said.

He pledged that, if voted into office, his party would open access to rural development, working toward better roads, schools, markets, hospitals and clinics for rural communities.

Kalumba said the rural population should remain the main focus for the next five years, noting that the rural vote is larger than the urban vote on the current voter register.

Taken together, the warnings from traditional and religious leaders and the accusations levelled by the Leadership Movement chairman paint a picture of mounting anxiety over the tone of the campaign’s final fortnight. Community leaders are now openly worried that political competition could spill into the kind of bloodshed Zambia has largely avoided in recent electoral cycles.

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