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Kenneth David Buchizya Kaunda

Kenneth Kaunda, who stepped down from office peacefully following an electoral defeat after 27 years in office, belonged to the first generation of African liberation leaders. Kaunda ruled Zambia from 1964, when the Southern African nation won its independence from Britain, until 1991, and afterwards became one of the most committed activists against HIV/AIDS in Africa. He is popularly known as KK. Kaunda was the first President of the Republic of Zambia who served from 1964 to 1991.

Kenneth David Buchizya Kaunda was born on 28 April 1924. Kaunda was born to an ordained Church of Scotland missionary and teacher. He was a teacher by profession taking after his father. Kaunda spearheaded Zambia’s liberation struggle from British colonialists. He together with other heroes and heroines under the flagship of the United National Independence Party (UNIP), which he headed, immensely sacrificed for Zambia’s independence from British rule. The political party was a break away from Harry Mwaanga Nkumbula’s Northern Rhodesia African National Congress. UNIP is the successor to the Zambian African National Congress which KK also headed.

In 1972 all political parties except UNIP were banned. At the same time, Kaunda nationalized foreign companies by majority acquisition of stakes in key foreign-owned companies. The oil crisis of 1973 and a slump in export revenues put Zambia in a state of economic crisis. Although Zambia’s copper-based economy fared badly under his long stewardship, Kaunda will be remembered more for his role as an anti-colonial fighter who stood up to white minority rule in Southern African countries such as Angola, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa and Rhodesia, now Zimbabwe.

The youngest of eight children, Kaunda lost his father when he was eight years old. His mother was a teacher – a rare profession for Zambian women in those days. He started his political career as the organizing secretary of the Northern Rhodesian African National Congress (NRANC) in the Northern Province of Zambia. But in 1958, he broke from the NRANC to form the Zambian African National Congress (ZANC). The colonial authorities banned it a year later, and Kaunda was imprisoned in Lusaka for nine months.

ZANC became the United Party for National Development (UNIP) in 1959. The following year, Kaunda was released from prison and elected president of the nationalist, left-of-center UNIP. He then started organizing civil disobedience known as the Cha-cha-cha campaign. It was the philosophy of Mahatma Gandhi that made Kaunda committed to non-violent principles.

Kaunda was not ashamed to weep in public and had a unique speaking style, emphasizing key thoughts by repeating whole sentences, his trademark white handkerchief in his left hand. He espoused an ideology of “humanism” mixing Christian ethics, traditional African values and socialistic principles. Using his rhetorical skills to appeal to the public, Kaunda won independence for his nation without resorting to violence in 1964. As UNIP president, he ruled Zambia for 27 years.

In foreign policy, Kaunda provided logistical help to other African liberation movements, including the Zimbabwe African People’s Union (ZAPU) and the breakaway Zimbabwe African National Union (ZANU) of Southern Rhodesia and the African National Congress (ANC) of South Africa. The ANC’s Radio Freedom was allowed to broadcast from Lusaka and it was under Kaunda’s protection that the ANC waged an armed struggle, then a diplomatic one against apartheid. Zambia also helped Zimbabwe gain its independence from white minority rule in 1980. But during his time in power, Zambia became a one-party state – effectively giving him absolute control.

KK’s liberation struggle against white supremacy rule did not simply end in Zambia but was extended to the entire region and beyond. His conviction was that Zambia could not be completely freed while its neighbors were still under chains. He advocated for peace in the region and beyond through platforms such as the Organization of African Unity (OAU) which is now the African Union (AU), Frontline States and Southern Africa Coordination Conference (SADCC), a precursor to the Southern African Development Community (SADC). Dr Kaunda’s leading role in liberation struggles and brokering peace deals even beyond the region earned Zambia accolades by the international community.

On 24 October 1989 Zambia celebrated its 25th anniversary as an independent nation. President Kaw1da had been Zambia's leader throughout this sometimes extremely difficult period in the life of a young nation. As is the case in many newly independent African states, "presidentialism" (defined as the concentration of executive powers in the presidency) has characterized the political process in Zambia. President Kaunda has been the country's chief policy-maker, he and his closest advisors have made all the major and many of the minor decisions affecting the course of the country.

Kenneth Kaunda alone among Zambian politicians was seen as a truly national figure. Other, however, unfairly, are identified with same regional interest. Kaunda is Zambian, yet belongs to no Zambian "tribe": he was born and raised in Bemba country, but his parents came from Malawi. This fact has given Kaunda unique authority. It was reinforced by his obvious dedication, his passionate hatred of racialism and his remarkable endurance under enormous pressure . But Kaunda' s moral qualities should not obscure his talents as a politician which was revealed in his subtle awareness of both popular feeling and of the constraints within which he must work.

Despite his wide powers, President Kaunda was far from being a dictator. He was a gentle and humane person, though with a tough underlying streak, and he was deeply attached to the Humanist principles which he has sought to inculcate into Zambian society. He was sometimes regarded as too gentile and not strict enough with leaders that err.

Kaunda banned the political opposition in 1973. He was forced to reverse this decision in 1991 due to popular pressure provoked by shortages of basic foodstuffs as well as increasing international pressure for greater democracy in Africa. He fell from power with the advent of multiparty democracy. In 1991, he lost presidential elections to Fredrick Chiluba from the Movement for Multiparty Democracy (MMD) after a fiercely contested campaign. Kaunda accepted defeat waving his trademark white handkerchief.

Kaunda had continued to engage in national politics and in 1996 tried to stand for the presidency. However, the Chiluba government changed the constitution so that anyone whose parents came from outside the country was deemed a foreigner and could therefore not run for office. Chiluba later attempted to deport Kaunda alleging that he was a Malawian. In 1997, Chiluba threw Kaunda in jail on Christmas Day for allegedly being involved in a foiled coup attempt.

In 1999, during Chiluba’s rule, he was declared stateless by a Zambian High Court, but he challenged this decision in the Supreme Court of Zambia, which declared him to be a Zambian citizen the following year. Kaunda became an AIDS campaigner, announcing publicly one of his sons had died from the illness. Throughout the African continent, many streets, buildings and airports are named after him. And even in old age, he repeatedly raised his voice in public against perceived injustices as well as the oppression of minorities.

Kaunda, Zambia’s founding president and liberation hero, died 17 June 2021 at a military hospital in the capital, Lusaka, where he was being treated for pneumonia. He was 97. The former president – affectionately known as KK – had been feeling unwell and had been admitted to the Maina Soko Medical Centre in Lusaka. “I am sad to inform [members] we have lost Mzee [the old man]. Let’s pray for him,” Kaunda’s son Kambarage said. Authorities declared 21 days of mourning for the liberation hero. “On behalf of the entire nation and on my own behalf, I pray that the entire Kaunda family is comforted as we mourn our first president and true African icon,” President Edgar Lungu said in a message on his Facebook page.