Zambian President Hakainde Hichilema has suspended three Constitutional Court judges with immediate effect, his office announced on Monday.
The suspended judges are Justice Anne Sitali, Justice Mungeni Mulenga, and Justice Palan Mulonda, all of whom were appointed by Hichilema’s predecessor, Edgar Lungu.
In a statement released by State House spokesperson Clayson Hamasaka on Monday evening, the details of the suspension were outlined as follows:
President Hakainde Hichilema has with immediate effect, acting on the recommendation in the report presented to him by the Judicial Complaints Commission suspended three (3) Judges of the Constitutional Court of Zambia.
The suspended Judges include; Justice Anne Sitali, Justice Mungeni Mulenga and Justice Palan Mulonda.
The suspension of the three is in exercise of the powers vested in the President in Article 144 (3) of the Constitution of the Republic of Zambia.
The move may increase scrutiny of Zambia’s democracy. Last month, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights expressed concern over multiple allegations regarding the arbitrary arrests of opposition leaders.
These arrests were on charges that included unlawful assembly and espionage. In response, the government rejected these allegations.
Zambian politicial commentator, Sishuwa Sishuwa, suggested that the suspension of the three judges is motivated by four partisan considerations on the part of President Hichilema. In a post on social media platform X (formerly Twitter), Sishuwa wrote:
The first is revenge. The three judges who have been suspended are the ones who ruled against Hichilema in the 2016 petition that he brought against the re-election of then President Lungu following that year’s presidential election.
At the time, Hichilema was righty aggrieved that the three judges reversed under very strange circumstances the judgement that the full bench of five justices had made a few days earlier and, in so doing, terminated the hearing of his petition on account of what they called lapse of time.
Disappointed with their conduct, Hichilema accused the three judges who threw out his petition of “being corrupt and under President Edgar Lungu’s control”.
Their suspension constitutes a form of payback punishment for their conduct over that 2016 case.
Sishuwa said the second motivation for the suspension of the three judges appears to be the eligibility case involving Edgar Lungu, whom Hichilema is determined to exclude from running in the 2026 election based on the real fear that the former president might defeat him.
She argued that by suspending the three judges who are all likely to rule that Lungu is eligible to run again, as per their three previous rulings on the matter, Hichilema is strategically reducing the total number of judges on the ConCourt bench to 8.
This 8 would consist of a majority of five that are likely to rule against Lungu and the remaining three judges who, unless they abandon their 2021 judgement, will constitute a minority.
The third motivation behind the suspension and imminent removal of the three judges, according to Sishuwa, is the desire to rig the ConCourt in favour of the president in the event of a disputed 2026 election.
The constitutional court has the final say on all matters relating to the interpretation of Zambia’s Constitution, including the election of the president.
Sishuwa said the fourth and final motivation is to send a warning to other judges about what awaits them should they dare to rule against Hichilema.
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