COSMAS CHILESHE GOES FOR CHILANGWA IN KAWAMBWA
COSMAS CHILESHE GOES FOR CHILANGWA IN KAWAMBWA
Kawambwa Constituency was established in 1964 and Dingiswayo Banda was the Member of Parliament under the United National Independence Party (UNIP). In 1968, John Mwanakatwe was elected MP and served until 1973 when Protasio Mwelwa took over, still under UNIP. In 1978, Titus Mukupo became MP. He was succeeded by Edwin Chansa in 1983.
UNIP held the Constituency until 1988 when Francis Kapansa lost the parliamentary seat to Joseph Mpundu who stood under the Movement for Multiparty Democracy (MMD). In 1996, Elizaberth Mutale became the MP. She was succeeded by Afrika Chungu in 2001 who then lost the seat in 2006 to Elizaberth Chitika who stood on the Patriotic Front (PF) party.
In 2011, PF’s Nickson Chilangwa became the MP and has held the seat since then.
Cosmas Chileshe, a renowned veteran journalist who once worked for Times of Zambia as well as Zambia National Broadcasting Authority (ZNBC) has set his eyes on Kawambwa Constituency.
He is Former Diplomat at Embassy of Zambia, Washington, D.C. After being recalled from the diplomatic service, Chileshe hibernated for some time until he joined the United Party for National Development (UPND) a party he seek adoption from in 2026. In UPND, Chileshe is among the brains of the media. He serves as UPND Director Digital (Social Media) Presidential Support Programme. The Kawambwa Constituency aspirant has already put his name on the ground and continues to feature on various platforms explaining UPND policies as well as sharing his vision for Kawambwa.
From the look of things, PF’s Chilangwa still wants to contest beyond his current term. If he wins, he would be MP for 20 years. His critiques say there is no reason for Chilangwa to continue being an MP as if it is his personal constituency while citing poverty, underdevelopment and all sorts of social and economic challenges in this constituency.
At the moment, Chilangwa is among the expelled MP by a PF faction President Miles Sampa, and should the court judgment in the ongoing legal batles go against him, we are likely to see Cosmas Chileshe on the ballot, standing under UPND challenging to remove the PF MP. It is worth mentioning that actually, there are several other aspirants who are still yet to come up.