RB Mocks Lungu For Using A Walking Stick At 56

Former president Rupiah Banda yesterday mocked PF aspiring candidate Edgar Lungu, for using a walking stick at 56.
Banda claimed that he was a more energetic old man than Lungu and wondered why his return to politics was being opposed on account of his age. It was a disappointing start to a highly anticipated campaign launch for Banda’s team, having forcefully taken over the MMD presidential candidature about a fortnight ago.
Approximately 1,000 people, including little children, attended Banda’s campaign launch at Mtendere’s Mahatma Gandhi playground in Lusaka, but only a fraction seemed to concentrate on the programme. Nevertheless, Banda went ahead to address his meeting, after being introduced by MMD Mwandi member of parliament Michael Kaingu. The former head of state did not have much new to promise his audience, apart from assuring them that he would fill their tummies when he regains power by reducing mealie-meal prices. But it was rather his remarks on Lungu that seemed to captivate Mtendere residents. “When it was known that I was coming back, they said I was too old to return and that I was unable to walk. Niyeve okangiwa kuyenda mambala.
Neo nuyenda tyala bwino koma eve mwana oyenda na ndodo (it’s that crook who can’t walk. I am able to walk properly, but him, who is younger than me, is using a walking stick),” Banda said in apparent reference to Lungu. “I don’t need glasses when reading. I read with my own eyes, so who is old between me and them?” And Banda wondered why UPND president Hakainde Hichilema was using his son to campaign instead of his own children.
“They are using my son, instead of telling him to respect mpando weenzepo auso (the seat where your father was) they are using my son, Andrew, to tell lies.
Why are they using my son, instead of their own children? Ula ni mwana wangu wozibalila neka. Olo kuti aninene kuti tyani, niliye navo na nchito. Ndiye vanufuna vamene ivo. (That one is my own son. I don’t care what they say, that is the democracy I want in my house,” said Banda.