Kaunda’s daughter says Nujoma gave her a home

Kenneth Kaunda’s daughter, Catherine Kaunda, has said without the assistance of founding president Sam Nujoma, she does not know what would have happened to her father and family.

Catherine spoke to The Namibian on Thursday about the significant role Nujoma played in their lives as a second father.

“What a biological brother could not do, a brother [Nujoma] did for my father,” she said.

Kaunda died on 17 June 2021 at the age of 97.

He served as the first president of Zambia after the country gained independence from British colonial rule in 1964, ruling until 1991.

BROTHERLY ASSISTANCE

She said Nujoma donated a house to their family because her father was declared stateless in 1991.

Catherine said Nujoma was concerned that Kaunda did not have a place to call home.

“Uncle Sam called my father and asked ‘now that you are retiring, will the current president chase you like [Frederick] Chiluba did?’ He said ‘no, it is not a matter of chasing, but I don’t have a house in Zambia’,” she said.

She expressed gratitude to Nujoma because he gave her a place to call home.

At the time, the government said the house, situated behind St George’s Diocesan School in Windhoek, was given to Kaunda as a token of appreciation for the role he played in Namibia’s struggle for independence.

Under Kaunda’s leadership, Zambia hosted and extended support to many African national movements, including Swapo, while they waged armed guerilla warfare against colonial forces in their respective countries.

Catherine said her father called the late president Hage Geingob when she was in need of a country to live in after Kaunda was declared stateless.

“[My father said] I’ll send my daughter to Namibia, to Sam. I won’t even bother the president. My boy [Geingob] will do it all,” she said.

Geingob in 2021 described Kaunda as his political father.

“I consider comrade Kaunda as my political father to whom I was introduced by another one of Africa’s extraordinary personalities, comrade Nujoma, the father of the Namibian revolution,” Geingob said at Kaunda’s funeral.

Catherine said the government set her up with a job and citizenship.

“I cried. I cried when I got here. I am so thankful. I was treated like a queen,” she said.

RESCUED KAUNDA

Catherine said Kaunda’s status at that time was motivated by the late Zambian president Chiluba.

She said shortly after Kaunda was declared stateless, he was helped by a Namibian diplomat abroad, where Kaunda and his bodyguard were escorted to the Namibian embassy.

“He put him in the car with [Kaunda’s] bodyguard. Then he rang tate Nujoma and they spoke on the phone,” Catherine said.

She said Nujoma instructed the diplomat to give Kaunda everything he needed, including money and flight tickets, as he was not welcome at any Zambian embassy.

“He [Nujoma] said ‘give him transport money, tickets, wherever he’s going to go, and then give him pocket money and accommodation while in Austria. Do everything’,” she said.