Canadian Journalist Tries To Hide Sata Bribe Scandal

Kusila Kwa Cobra reported recently that Michael Sata was at Yatsani Radio station handing out K50,000 notes to people. One of their intern staff, Ms Eliasha Stokes reported these illegal actions on a website called Journalists for Human Rights.

Ms Stokes now wants to have her work removed, Kusila Kwa Cobra will consider her request. Her blog has subsquently been removed from the Journalists for Human Rights website; maybe they spotted the hypocrisy of her story? When you see what she has written then you will see why. Ms Stokes letter to us can be found under the story called 'Sata Exposed for Bribing Journalists’. Kusila Kwa Cobra’s reply to Ms Stokes is here:

Ms Stokes,

Thank you for contacting me via the Kusila Kwa Cobra website. You did not leave your email details so this is the only way I can communicate with you. This is of course a very public forum and its contents may be picked up by other journalists, newspapers, radios etc, so I choose my words carefully.

I do not understand your concerns about false ‘investigations’, naming names, “putting false world [sic] into my mouth” as you put it and your right with regard to copyright. You withdrew your article after it was challenged which suggests that you were aware of your mistake. I however totally stand by my work. Let me explain.

First you raise the issue of our investigation proving “absolutely false”, far from it. If I am wrong then I urge you to address the following:

• Deny that you were working at Yatsani Radio when the ‘politician’ attended the premises to “buy air time for an interview”;

• Deny that you took Kw50,000 from the politician;

• Deny that four other people also took money (we accept that they were not journalist, indeed we understand that they were not employees of Yatsani radio but we do have their names);

• Deny that the politician in question was Mr Michael Sata, Presidential Candidate for the PF Party;

As you will see my ‘investigation’ is well informed and I am more than happy to furnish any authorities you choose with the evidence I have uncovered. The authorities I am thinking of are the Electoral Commission of Zambia, the Zambian Police and the Immigration Department. Should you think of any other do let me know. Of course if I am wrong then you will have no problems defending my charges. If I am proved wrong then you have my word that I will retract my story and apologise to you on the Kusila Kwa Cobra website. It would be the professional thing to do.

Your second point is that I put false words in your mouth. Again far from it. I attribute no names to you. I named Yatsani Radio and I named Michael Sata. I could name other names but I will hold back for now, unless of course you want me to.

Thirdly, that your article is not political. Your article is about political corruption, namely bribery. You yourself use the expressions, “a very prominent politician”, “the election is coming”, “The politician reaches into his pocket and pulls out a wad of K50,000 notes (about twenty dollars). He hands a note to each of the journalists”, “I know it is unethical for a journalist to take money, especially from a politician.”, ““That’s our future President”, remarks one of my co-workers.”, and finally, “Future President or future dictator?”. Ms Stokes you are a journalist, you know the power of words and you know the meaning they can convey; it is you who made the story political, not me.

What this really boils down to is your own hurt journalistic ego. It was you who took money off a politician during an election campaign. It was you who was silly enough to write about your stupidity and then publish it on the web. You are either very naive or you deliberately placed your story so as to attract attention to yourself as a journalist who has witnessed electoral bribery at first hand.

What is most depressing is that after conducting yourself in such an unprofessional manner you choose to hide behind imperialist USA laws. I may well have to remove your text from my website but this story will not die. Kusila Kwa Cobra is monitored in the USA, South Africa, Norway, UK to name but a few, and of course it now has a keen following in Zambia. As a journalist who has taken money off a politician I would have thought you would want to keep a low profile, not raise your head above the parapet.

This issue has nothing to do with copyright. This is a story about political corruption and your involvement in it. You are an accomplice to Mr Sata’s actions, your refusal to go to the Electoral Commission or the police damns you. In Zambia we have a problem with corruption and we expect learned people like yourself to help us in our fight. You are a Canadian; would your actions be acceptable in your own country? The answer is ‘no’, so why do you come to our country and get involved in such illegal actions.

You are nothing more than a cheap journalist who takes money from bad politicians; maybe you should go get a job at the Post.

The Kusila Kwa Cobra Team.

Bye Bye By-Election - Can Sata Face The Raw Truth Of Kanchibiya?

In today’s edition of that PF mouthpiece ‘The Post’ it is reported that the MMD were trounced in the recent by-election in Kanchibiya in Northern Province, with PF getting an incredible 70% of the vote. What a great headline for Sata and his supporters. But as usual with all Post stories the truth rarely matches the headline. Closer inspection of the figures reveals that it is Sata who may be crying on 30th October.

Turn out for the by-election was a poor 33% and the reality is that it was PF people who could not be bothered to vote for their man. The fact is that the PF candidate received 2195 votes less than their 2006 candidate. The MMD candidate was down by only 492 votes. In terms of percent of votes lost PF is down 30% and the MMD only 23% when compared with the 2006 elections. After you do the maths one discovers that the MMD closed the gap on PF by 7%.

Alarmingly for Sata this by-lection took place in Northern Province, which after Lusaka and the Copper Belt is one of his strongest regions. If his vote is down 7% in this region then he is going to be in big trouble nationally. If the Kanchibiya result is replicated across Zambia on 30th October then it will be bad news for the King Cobra

Further analysis of other results show even more bad news for Mr Sata and the PF, proving that the Kanchibiya result is not a one-off either. Earlier this year in the Kanyama (Lusaka urban) by-election the PF crashed in support again. Votes won were PF 30.5% vs 40.7% in 2006, so down 10.2%; UPND 22.3% vs 33.1% in 2006, up 10.8%, and MMD 27% vs 22% in 2006, up 5%.

For some reason Sata’s people are staying at home. Is it because he is not attracting them this time around? Has he lost his sparkle? Is it because his negative campaigning is annoying even his own supporters? Are his policy u-turns driving people away? And more worryingly why is he being hammered in both the rural and urban areas? Who knows, and quite and frankly who cares, but I’ll bet a few kwacha that Sata is a very worried man; the people are rejecting him.

WHAT IS TO BE DONE ON 30TH OCTOBER 2008?

When all sloganeering, political rhetoric, rallies, campaign excitement and any other activity that goes with the election are finally brought to a stop, as Zambians we shall at the end of the road stand and begin to look up to the leadership that we will have put in power for the prudent, effective and smooth running of the affairs of our great country.

Now this is a very sobering and humbling thought as it gives us an idea of what will be the state of our minds and conscience in the after math of the October polls after we have finally elected a president. At that point all the political curtains will have been rolled down and in our sight shall stand a leader that we shall be stack with for the next three years.

With this line of thinking, what is to be done is take precautions against detrimental elements to the achievements made by this regime as has been the general consensus and also the potential we have to do much more. The following constitute the dangerous elements to the future of our country:

• Corrupt, inconsistent and dictatorial leadership that is bound to take our nation backwards. This is the leadership that Michael Sata has stood for most of his life in politics as evidenced through the political maneuvers that he has engaged in up to this point. To start with, everyone fully knows that Mr. Sata only left the MMD after being beaten by the caliber of the late Dr. Mwanawasa for the party candidacy. His departure was therefore not based on any policy differences but purely on his selfish ambition. The only thing that remains consistent about this gentleman is his selfish ambition for the presidency. Now ask yourself where does he get the moral authority to criticize the party (MMD)? He only left after being rejected because of the competence, integrity and honesty that the party was looking for in a successor to FTJ. Now he thinks Zambians have suddenly lost their memory. This should be clearly REJECTED!!!

• Today Mr. Sata claims to be so much concerned about the plight of the poor people and that he enormously cares about them. Does he also think that Zambians have forgotten that it was him who went around mistreating the poor during his time in government? As local government and housing minister, Sata dismantled certain compounds and left poor people in the cold without giving them any alternative or any where to stay. This he did without any compassion and empathy for the poor. (Weekly Post, Tuesday, February 22, 1994). This hypocrisy should be rejected!!!

• Where is Sata and the Patriotic Front's commitment to the poor when his councilors and Member of Parliament have failed to simply address the plight of the people of Mazyopa but busy politicking about the whole issue when they have the power and responsibility to act on behalf of the poor. Where is the so-called ACTION when the PF dominated councils are failing the people by not acting responsibly? He has failed to show leadership apart from mere talk in the press.

• Sata is certainly a riotous character, his coarse, blustering ways and rude domineering style makes him less democratic and not fully qualified to be president. Sata has probably been subjected to more beatings in his adult life than any other politician in the world. Because of his misbehavior in 1992 he was stoned at a funeral gathering and also floored by fellow minister Dawson Lupunga and equally nearly beaten by another opposition leader. (Weekly Post, Tuesday, February 22, 1994) This is not the kind of character that Zambia wants in a president. With this behavior, the nation can easily be plunged in problems through having such a person in the highest office. It is this kind of conduct that even made the Lusaka city councilors in 1993 have a show down with him over his continued interference in the administration of the civic authority's affairs and his involvement in the corruption of the Merzaf housing scheme of which he has never apologized to Zambians.

• Zambia will need someone who has experienced national governance at a very high level and has a lot of soberness. Even in countries where they have elected leaders who are relatively young it has not been at the expense of experience. The perceived young president of Tanzania for example acquired experience at parliamentary and ministerial level before he ran for the presidency. It was not a trial and error arrangement. Running a country should not be reduced to running a company of less than one thousand employees. Zambia is not a toy such that anyone can come from nowhere and say they want to be president. Even Barack Obama was Senator before he ran for president (probably equivalent to MP in Zambia).
Above all, what should be done is elect someone who is most familiar with the policies that are being implemented right now, someone sober, experienced and forward looking. All the conmen that are pretending to bring change should be stopped by all means so that the achievements that have been made are not in any way reversed. Electing someone who knows the pattern means continuity and the desire to see much more done.