The Dilemma of mourning an Alleged militia member and former cabinet mimister

Zambia has spent ten days trying to hold two accounts of Mutotwe Kafwaya at once, and struggling to manage it. One,a former Cabinet minister and sitting MP, mourned with tributes, a rival’s home visit, and calls for justice. The other, a man found on the site of what government calls a suspected militia camp, amid insurgency allegations.

Here’s the precise answer to what he’s actually accused of – nothing, formally. The eleven people arrested at Kabulonga face treason-related charges. Kafwaya isn’t one of them, he died that night, so no charge was ever brought against him. The “militia” label attached to his memory is government’s characterisation, not a legal finding, applied to a man who can’t contest it

As one Zambian commentator put it this week: “Being a former commando, retired police officer, opposition member or person present at a particular residence does not, without further evidence, establish membership of a militia.” Kafwaya’s own family rejected the label outright. Mundubile, who says he was in the room, put it bluntly saying, “There was no militia. There is no militia.”

None of that proves government’s account wrong, officials say weapons and tactical equipment were recovered, serious claims a court should weigh, not a newsroom.

But here’s the deeper point, mourning someone and demanding accountability for how they died aren’t opposites. A family can grieve. A country can still insist on knowing exactly what happened.

Zambia doesn’t need to decide this week whether Kafwaya was victim, bystander or participant. It needs the answer to come from a courtroom, not a press statement.