Father of independence in Zambia, former President Kenneth Kaunda, who died in June at the age of 97, was buried on Wednesday July 7 in Lusaka, in a cemetery reserved for heads of state, opposite the seat of government .
Read also: Death of Kenneth Kaunda, the first Zambian president
The day before, members of his family had taken legal action to contest the place of his burial, demanding that he be buried in accordance with his wishes near his wife, Betty Kaunda, who died in 2012. But as the ceremony began, the justice rejected their request, judging that "
the public interest takes
precedence
over the personal interest
" and that "
Kaunda was not an ordinary person
". Nicknamed the "
African Gandhi
", Kenneth Kaunda had succeeded in defeating the former Northern Rhodesia from British rule in 1964, without bloodshed. He "
died peacefully
" on June 17 in the military hospital in Lusaka where he had been admitted with pneumonia.
His children paid a heartfelt tribute on Wednesday to the man who was considered at the end of his life as an African sage.
“
Have a good trip, you fought fair battles, you finished the race.
We will miss you very much
, ”said one of his daughters, Musata Banda.
“
You wanted three more years to get to a hundred years old, but you'll be celebrating your 100th birthday in Heaven,
” she added.
Three weeks of mourning
President Edgar Lungu announced that Kaunda's birthday, April 28, will now be a public holiday. Zambia had declared three weeks of mourning. A national tribute was paid to him on Friday. Former President of Mozambique, Joachim Chissano, and Zambian President Rupiah Banda, as well as the leader of the main opposition party running for the presidential election, Hakainde Hichilema, were among the hundreds of people attending the ceremony.
Zambia, which has enjoyed relative stability since its first multiparty election in 1991, holds presidential and legislative elections on August 12. Using his father's motto, “
one Zambia, one nation
”, Kaunda Panji wished for a peaceful election. In front of Lusaka Cathedral, Alex Mwale, 19, confided his sentence: "
Kaunda, our father, belonged to the class of great men, like Nelson Mandela
".
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