chanda Kambwili has penned a heartrending letter to President Hakainde Hichilema, pleading for the compassionate release of her ailing father, the former minister Dr. Chishimba Kambwili, on strictly medical grounds. She implores the Head of State to weigh the scale of justice alongside the weight of humanity, for the clock of recovery has become alarmingly short.
In an open letter dated 17th August 2025, Chanda Kambwili described her father’s deteriorating health condition at Chimbokaila Prison. The daughter openly catalogues creeping ailments, fatigue, despair, and the unremitting fear that a proud public career may abruptly become an agonised farewell. “My father stands today not as an opponent of the State he loved to serve,” the letter stresses, “but as a man whose breathing is shaped by memories of his grandchildren’s first steps and his wife’s cherished hello.”
“This is a daughter speaking, not a politician asking for advantage,” she said. “I urge you, Sir, to exercise the mercy the Zambian Constitution gives, and to grant my father a pardon out of compassion for the father I know, not the prisoner the world sees.”
Dr. Kambwili, a veteran politician and former Cabinet Minister, has been serving a prison sentence at Chimbokaila, where his health is said to have worsened in recent months.
The appeal now places the decision in the hands of President Hichilema, with Kambwili’s family hoping for what they describe as a moment for “healing of hearts to triumph over punishment.”
©️ Zambia Reports | August 18th, 2025.