A former Zambian cabinet minister was killed during a security raid on a property linked to opposition leader Brian Mundubile, authorities have confirmed, deepening tensions following the country’s disputed presidential election.
Police said Mutotwe Kafwaya, 49, was fatally shot by officers during an operation in Lusaka last Friday, one day after voting in the presidential election.
Authorities said a joint security task force came under fire during the raid and returned fire, killing one man who was later identified by relatives as Kafwaya.
Police said officers also recovered a firearm and arrested 11 people during the operation.
The government has accused Mundubile’s National Restoration and Progressive Unity Party (NRPUP) of involvement in “insurgency” and “militia activity”, alleging that high-grade weapons were being stored at the property.
Mundubile, who has since gone into hiding, has rejected the accusations as “total fabrications”.
He said earlier this week that Kafwaya had been shot during the raid at his house and that he had received no information about the former minister’s whereabouts in the days that followed.
Police confirmed Kafwaya’s death late Wednesday after mounting calls from opposition figures and relatives for authorities to disclose what had happened to him.
Kafwaya entered parliament in 2016 and later served in the government of former President Edgar Lungu. He was appointed works minister in 2018 before moving to the transport portfolio the following year.
He remained in parliament as an opposition lawmaker after Lungu lost the 2021 presidential election to Hakainde Hichilema.
Election result challenged
Kafwaya’s death comes amid growing controversy surrounding Zambia’s latest presidential election.
Official results gave Hichilema a second five-year term with around 60% of the vote, while Mundubile received about 38%.
Mundubile has rejected the result and said he plans to challenge it in court, alleging interference with the vote-counting and tabulation process.
Regional and international observers said election day itself was largely peaceful but raised concerns about restrictions on opposition campaigning, media access and changes to electoral rules shortly before the vote.
The European Union election observation mission said the electoral environment may have created an “uneven contest” and raised further concerns about the handling of results after polls closed.
In its latest assessment, the mission said the tabulation process “deteriorated significantly” after counting resumed following a six-hour suspension ordered by the electoral commission.
The commission said the pause was necessary because of violence against election workers and reported thefts of ballot boxes.
EU observers said officials at several tallying centres failed to immediately record announced results on official sheets and pointed to weaknesses in checks between electronically entered figures and paper records.
They also reported that returning officers repeatedly halted proceedings while waiting for instructions from election headquarters.
The mission described a heavy military presence around some counting centres as intimidating and said it had received reports of attacks targeting certain tallying locations.
Observers have called for “maximal transparency”, noting that the electoral commission has not published results broken down by individual polling station.
Meanwhile, Zambia’s Human Rights Commission has demanded information about people whose whereabouts remain unknown following arrests and security operations carried out around the election period.
The commission said anyone detained beyond the legally permitted period should either be brought before a court or released, and called for independent investigations into allegations of unlawful detention and enforced disappearance.