Home Affairs Minister justifies decision to deny Pan-Africanist Professor PLO Lumumba entry into Zambia

Zambia is a sovereign state with laid down guidelines and procedures that should be followed when admitting visitors in the country, Home Affairs Minister Stephen Kampyongo has said.

The Minister was commenting on government’s decision to stop Kenyan Professor Patrick Lumumba from entering Zambia on Saturday.

He said Zambia, like any other country, does not have absolute freedom in terms of admitting people who intend to visit as there are rules and regulations to be considered, further stating that Zambia reserves the right not to explain why someone is denied entry into the country.

‘’Just a few weeks ago, Laura Miti, a Zambian activist was denied entry into South Africa, Do we surely have to ask the SA government why they denied her entry? No! The country reserves the right to either state or not state reasons for deportation,” the Minister said.

‘’We do not micro manage anything, but govern by following laid procedures. And so, when such a decision was made, it was NOT the Minister’s decision per say, but governments decision reflecting the correct interpretation of rules and regulations from concerned stakeholders.”

Mr. Kampyongo said the Immigration Act 18 of 2010 clearly stipulates the rules and procedures that should be followed by people who intend to come to Zambia.

The Minister was speaking in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia before transiting to Geneva to attend an annual Executive Committee meeting of the United Nations High Commission for Refugees-UNHCR- in Geneva.

Meanwhile, All People’s Congress (APC) party president Nason Msoni has condemned in the strongest terms the denying of entry into Zambia of Kenyan academician Patrice Otiene Loch Lumumba.

Mr. Msoni said that he found it unfortunate that the Zambian government seems to have sustained the culture of deporting and denying entry of fellow Africans into the Country.

He is of the view that what government has done to deny Professor Lumumba entry into Zambia is an indication of how elevated political intolerance in the Country has become.

Mr. Msoni has charged that the self inflicted problems the PF government is in cannot however be addressed through the harassment of innocent fellow Africans coming to visit Zambia.

He says professor Lumumba in particular has nothing to do with the contraction of Chinese loans and the mortgaging of state assets for him to be denied entry into the Country by the Zambian government.

Mr. Msoni says that it was in this case a misplaced Judgment to deny Professor Lumumba a platform to highlight bad governance and the alleged permeating Chinese corruption taking root in Zambia.

Source: Lusaka Times