Brian Muntayalwa Mundubile—Aspirant engineer, turned accountant, turned businessman, turned lawyer seeking the Zambian presidency.
By Moses C Kuwema
Born on January 5, 1971, in Mporokoso, Brian Muntayalwa Mundubile is the son of John Chilambwe Mundubile and Norah Chiluya Mundubile.
His father was a politician in the UNIP government, serving as council chairperson for Mporokoso.
Mundubile started his primary education around 1978–79 at Kikombe Primary School in Solwezi, where his father had been posted.
He later moved to Zambezi Primary School in Grade Two, where he studied until 1980 when his father retired and the family relocated back to Mporokoso.
Back in Mporokoso, Mundubile attended Loko Primary School for two years until 1983, when he moved to Lusaka to live with his sister.
In Lusaka, he attended Olympia Primary School up to Grade Six before transferring to Timothy Mwanakatwe School in Chilenje, where he completed Grade Seven.
For his secondary education, he attended Kamwala High School, where he completed Grade Twelve.
Upon completing secondary school, Mundubile enrolled in the School of Natural Sciences at the University of Zambia (UNZA) with the intention of pursuing engineering. However, he dropped out after two years.
He then switched careers and enrolled with ACCA through distance learning in 1994 before moving to ZCAS in 1996.
While pursuing his ACCA studies, Mundubile worked for the Zambia Development Agency until 1999, when he ventured into private business by running a drug store along Cairo Road, opposite the post office.
It was during his brief stint at UNZA that he met his wife, Asled, who was studying in the School of Humanities.
Mundubile and his wife dated for six years before marrying in 1998.
Unlike many people from the Copperbelt Province who moved to Lusaka in the early 1990s during the funeral of the Zambia national football team that perished in Gabon and made Misisi their home, Mundubile lived a relatively comfortable life in Lusaka, staying with his sister in the affluent suburbs of Olympia & Sunningdale.
Joining politics
Mundubile officially joined politics in 2008 after Levy Mwanawasa died and Rupiah Banda assumed the presidency.
He was close to the Banda family, and during the 2008 presidential by-election, he was responsible for mobilizing students on behalf of Banda’s campaign.
In the 2011 general elections, Mundubile contested the Mporokoso parliamentary seat on the MMD ticket but lost to the PF’s Nevelyn Willombe by 698 votes, polling 3,789 votes against Willombe’s 4,487.
His association with the MMD as late as 2011 is what made long-serving PF members such as Chishimba Kambwili reluctant to support him as PF president, arguing that he was not a “true green.”
In 2016, Mundubile switched political parties and contested the Mporokoso seat on the PF ticket. He won convincingly with 9,902 votes against his closest rival, UPND’s Eunice Mwila, who polled 1,656 votes.
It was also in 2016 that Mundubile was admitted to the Zambian Bar as an Advocate of the High Court.
Before being elected Member of Parliament, Mundubile served as chairman of the Energy Regulation Board.
Following his election as Mporokoso MP in 2016, President Edgar Lungu appointed him Provincial Minister for Northern Province. He served in that position until July 2019, when he was appointed Government Chief Whip.
When the PF lost power in 2021, Mundubile was appointed Leader of the Opposition. However, amid the state-sponsored confusion within the PF, the position later shifted to the likes of Miles Sampa and Robert Chabinga.
Mundubile was among the PF leaders who applied to succeed Edgar Lungu following the former president’s brief retirement from politics.
However, he put his ambitions on hold after Lungu resumed the PF presidency in October 2023.
Tonse Alliance
In November 2024, the PF joined the Tonse Alliance, with Lungu, as PF president, appointed chairperson of the alliance and Dan Pule, president of the Christian Democratic Party, appointed vice chairperson.
When President Lungu travelled to South Africa in early 2025 for medical treatment, Given Lubinda was left as the alliance’s interim chairperson.
On June 5, 2025, President Lungu passed away, and disagreements emerged within the alliance over who should assume the role of acting chairperson. Dan Pule argued that, as vice chairperson, he should take over, while Lubinda maintained that Lungu had designated him as caretaker. This dispute resulted in the alliance splitting into two factions.
In early 2026, the faction led by Dan Pule resolved that a convention should be held to choose the alliance’s presidential candidate to replace Lungu ahead of the 2026 general election.
On January 28, 2026, the convention elected Mundubile as the alliance’s presidential candidate for the 2026 elections, while maintaining that the FDD would be the political party under which the candidacy would be filed.
On January 7, 2026, Pule announced the expulsion of the PF from the alliance.
On May 16, 2026, one of the FDD members took the party to court over the convention and the agreement that had endorsed Mundubile as the party’s presidential candidate.
It was at this point that Mundubile opted to use another party within the Tonse Alliance—the National Reconciliation Party for Unity and Prosperity (NRPUP).
The PF Pamodzi Alliance, led by Makebi Zulu, subsequently entered into an alliance partnership with Mundubile’s Tonse Alliance.
Makebi was thereafter appointed as Mundubile’s running mate, and the pair are widely seen as among the main contenders in this August’s elections.
On March 19, 2026, the Zambia Police detained and formally charged Mundubile at Kenneth Kaunda International Airport in Lusaka with aiding and abetting, as well as hate speech, under the provisions of the Cyber Security and Cyber Crimes Act.
The charges relate to allegations that, between 2023 and 2025, he supported and facilitated the operation of a social media platform accused of publishing malicious and hateful content.
He was later released on police bond and is expected to appear before court.
On March 27, 2026, the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) formally charged Mundubile with corrupt acquisition of public property in a case linked to road construction contracts allegedly awarded to companies associated with him.
The two companies linked to Mundubile—Build Trust and Omni—are alleged to have received payments amounting to about K1.5 billion for road works that were never completed.
It remains to be seen whether these cases will derail the opposition leader’s campaign ahead of the August elections, but so far, he has remained unstoppable.
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Brian Muntayalwa Mundubile—Aspirant engineer, turned accountant, turned businessman, turned lawyer seeking the Zambian presidency.
