It is evident that Mr Hichilema wants to suppress free political expression to prevent political opponents and private citizens from holding him accountable. They want to suppress public discourse, which they undeniably know is against them. Things are not up to scratch and Zambians are beginning to fearlessly voice out their frustration and anger. But Mr Hichilema thinks he can dodge responsibility by silencing citizens through draconian laws and persistent arrests and imprisonment of critics. We are not shocked because Mr Hichilema is on record admitting how he personally spies on citizens, who engage in political expression through various social media channels such as the WhatsApp messaging application.

Mr Hichilema and the UPND’s hypocrisy is actually scandalous. How can people who rode on the back of rogue media like Zambian Watchdog and Koswe, which operated on Facebook and other digital platforms to malign and maliciously defame private citizens as a way to put the UPND in power be this ruthless and declare war against free political expression on digital and social media platforms? Why do they think they have a reserved seat to act as they wish towards others but the same should not be done to counter them? What is so special about them?

They want to arrest and imprison critics so that they gain control of people’s opinions or political expression by controlling social media. Mr Hichilema doesn’t want anyone to offer contrary views. He only wants people to be reading and following what is published by his State House media team through the Koswe and Zambian Watchdog. That hate and malice is what he wants to be feeding people with daily? He wants to arrest and imprison almost all active online criticizers, except his media team at State House, which manages Koswe and Zambian Watchdog.

It is obvious that Mr Hichilema is resolved to blatantly apply the law selectively. We have seen how the political affiliation of accused persons has made many UPND members and sympathizers less vulnerable to arrests and prosecution. The police can’t arrest them. They are above the law.

But this is a huge mistake because selective justice is no justice at all. It is nothing but injustice, and when the law is applied selectively, it weakens the competence of the criminal justice system. A society where the rich and politically connected evade justice through the interference and facilitation of the executive, degenerates into lawlessness and unconstitutionalism.

The dysfunctionality of the criminal justice system becomes an inevitable reality because the practice and institutionalization of selective justice paves way for the politically connected to get away with crime. It also erodes public trust and confidence in the criminal justice system.