SPEAKER MUTTI UNDER FIRE FOR “BLIND RULING” ON UNCONSTITUTIONAL BILL 7

…..…Tonse Alliance, legal experts slam Speaker’s defiance of Constitutional Court judgment

Speaker of the National Assembly Nelly Mutti has found herself at the center of a growing political and constitutional storm after delivering a ruling that critics have branded “misguided, reckless, and legally blind.”

At the heart of the controversy is Bill 7, a proposed amendment that the Constitutional Court has already ruled as having been birthed through unconstitutional means a decision that, in the eyes of many legal minds, should have buried the Bill once and for all.

But Speaker Mutti stunned the House and the nation when she declared that Parliament could still proceed with Bill 7, arguing that the Constitutional Court had no jurisdiction to interfere with the legislative process. That pronouncement has triggered fury, not just from opposition circles, but from prominent legal figures as well.

Celestine Mambula Mukandila, National Youth Chairperson of the Tonse Alliance and the lawyer who petitioned the court over the Bill’s legitimacy, came out swinging.

“It is an utter embarrassment that the head of Parliament would issue a ruling without reading the judgment that governs the very matter at hand,” Mukandila charged. “This is not just administrative laziness it is a direct insult to the Constitution and the authority of the courts.”

He said Speaker Mutti’s failure to engage with the ratio decidendi the legal backbone of the Constitutional Court’s judgment amounted to judicial defiance and a dangerous precedent that could shatter the separation of powers doctrine enshrined in Zambia’s democratic system.

This is not a legislative error. This is a premeditated attempt to bulldoze a Bill declared illegal,” Mukandila said, warning that the Tonse Alliance will not allow the Constitution to be “shredded for convenience.”

He further threatened contempt of court proceedings against the Ministry of Justice should it dare proceed with the amendments.

Legal analysts have since weighed in, describing Speaker Mutti’s move as “constitutionally absurd” and “a mockery of justice.”

Former Justice Minister Wynter Kabimba was equally unforgiving, urging the Executive to disregard the Speaker’s political gymnastics and trash the Bill altogether. Kabimba noted that the Court’s ruling was aimed squarely at the Executive’s abuse of process and had no bearing on legislative autonomy, contrary to what the Speaker claimed.

“The ruling was clear the process was flawed from the start. You can’t fix an illegality by continuing with it,” Kabimba argued.

The controversy has now snowballed into a full-blown constitutional crisis, with critics accusing Mutti of arming Parliament with immunity to violate the law, thereby rendering court rulings meaningless.

Mukandila concluded with a chilling warning:

“If this behavior is allowed to stand, we will be left with a Parliament that no longer respects the law, a government that manufactures laws in the shadows, and a Speaker who silences justice to protect political interests.”

KUMWESU