Police fueling violence – Sinkamba

By SANFROSSA MBERI

THE Police have been accused of complicity in fueling political violence by failing to cage perpetrators of the vice.

But the Zambia Police has advised Mr Sinkamba to sober up and begin to make statement based on an informed basis rather than making allegations that could not be substantiated.

Zambia Police Spokesperson Danny Mwale said Mr Sinkamba was free to consult the police on matters that concerned the policing of the country’s political activities.

But Green Party president Peter Sinkamba has warned that Police shall take the blame should the 2026 elections turn bloody.

 “Often, agents of political violence are known but rarely punished because of the presence of a third force. For example, in the Serenje case where the police swiftly arrested Socialist Party members but failed to apprehend ruling party members on claims that they are at large. The excuse is clearly a joke, and in my view, therein lies the problem,” Mr Sinkamba said.

Mr Sinkamba added that understanding political violence had become both an urgent challenge and a special problem for Zambia as the country prepared for the 2026 elections.

Mr Sinkamba said it was unfortunate that neither the Electoral Code of Conduct nor the proposed Public Gathering Act has addressed the problem of electoral violence and the inertia by the police to curb the vice has been fueling political violence.

He said political violence had in recent years become a dominant and pervasive feature of elections in Zambia because the Zambia Police had either turned themselves to spectators or had become participants.

Mr Sinkamba has predicted bloody electoral violence in the 2026 general elections but advises that unless the police and those in authority work to curb the vice, Zambia could easily become a bloody battlefield for political supremacy.

He said in various areas, the political violence had open day-time conflicts leaving rival cadres killed and maimed on for reasons of belonging to different political parties but without understanding their ideologies.

Mr Sinkamba was speaking following the violence that allegedly took place in Serenje involving Socialist Party (SP) and United Party for National Development (UPND) cadres.

“Surprisingly, the political violence has been strikingly absent in some contexts where it was most feared and predicted while it has erupted elsewhere in unexpected no-income places.”

He said most politicians could coexist during political campaigns or in any other situation as long as the inability by the police to provide fair policing of the country’s political events was resolved.