Former Patriotic Front (PF) deputy secretary general Mumbi Phiri has declared her intention to run for the PF leadership FIVE days after leaving a prison where she had been held for roughly 402 days.
And Ms. Phiri claims she has no ill will against President Hakainde Hichilema despite the fact that she was imprisoned following her vehement denial of a murder allegation.
After receiving a nolle prosequi on Wednesday, Ms. Phiri claimed that her time in prison had given her the strength and enthusiasm to return to politics and run for the PF leadership position.
The politician, who is accused of murder, claims that she has changed her mind about quitting politics for the benefit of those women who look up to her.
“If you remember very well, i announced that i wanted to retire from active politics. God spoke to me when i was in prison, i am not retiring in politics because if i retire, alot of women are going to be scared to get into politics. They will shrink they will not want to participate in politics, ” the former Munali lawmaker said when she featured on MUVI Television last evening.
The former diplomat said she will tommorrow officially announce her candidature for the PF presidency at the former governing party secretariat.
“I am going to vie and put in my application to vie for the presidency of the Patriotic Front, and am going to the secretariat on Tuesday.
“I want the people of Zambia to try us women, because we have been ruled by men, they should try us women, and i am announcing, i am available,” Ms Phiri said.
And Ms Phiri says she holds no grudge against President Hakainde Hichilema over her detention on a charge of murder, an offence she vehemently denied committing.
“I have no grudge even to President Hakainde Hichilema. I could pray in prison and commit Government into his hands.
“I have forgiven, because it is in his regime that this thing has happened to me, if he feels i can have a grudge, I have no grudge, that’s why God has taken me out of that prison, because i am a believer,” the staunch Catholic, who revealed that Mr Hichilema is his son-in-law, said.
The politician and former President Edgar Lungu’s barber Shebby Chilekwa were both charged with murdering UPND supporter Lawrence Banda during the 2021 Kaoma council chairperson by-election. Lawrence Banda received a 25-year sentence with hard labor.
Ms. Mumbi is adamant that she is innocent and was at church on the relevant day of the incident rather than the crime scene.
“I was at church, when i heard that there was shooting, i asked the leaders who were there…
I thank God that the church where i was came to testify that i was in church at the time,” she said.
Ms. Phiri claimed that an online video clip in which she was cited as having been present at the Kaoma crime scene was manipulated.
“You as journalists have to be very careful. In that video, i said, police should help end the gun culture. Because i said i was there[i meant in Kaoma] and not the crime scene,” she said.
Ms Phiri, whose quoting scripture and honoring God most of the interview, also recounted her time in prison and revealed why never gave any interview to journalists on Judgement day.
“I couldn’t speak because that[Wednesday when i was released from prison] was the 18th memorial for my son who died in the Kawambwa accident, that is why you did not see me going to the media to speak,” she said.
Ms Phiri thanked Speaker of the National Assembly Nelly Mutti, former first Lady Esther Lungu and many others who visited her while she was detained.
