HARRY Kalaba has said his ejection from a church service is barbaric, inhuman and behaviour “only fit for the animal kingdom.”

On Sunday, the Bahati PF member of parliament was indirectly ordered by Masaiti police to leave a Baptist Church event.

Baptist worshippers were holding their 2018 general conference under the theme “Worship” at Masaiti Boarding Secondary School from August 9 to 12 and, according to correspondence from one of the event’s organisers, President Edgar Lungu was invited to be guest of honour on Sunday.

However, the Head of State did not show up nor did he send a representative.

The organiser, who opted for anonymity, told The Mast in Masaiti that State House was infuriated when it learnt that Kalaba would be in attendance at the service.

Kalaba and his small entourage arrived at the church shortly after 09:30 hours and proceeded to sit in the marquee that was adjacent to the main one.

In no time, vacillation among the event’s organisers became evident and they somewhat retreated, subjecting the more than one thousand congregants to worship music and dances, for several minutes.

Chieftainess Malembeka of the Lamba people was also in attendance.

When approached by this reporter to shed light on what was delaying the service from starting, one of the organisers said:

“We invited President Edgar Lungu to be our guest of honour but he declined or should I say he didn’t respond to our invitation. He did not even send a representative here today (Sunday) and so the church leadership thought of ba Honourable Kalaba and this has angered the government. They are saying inviting Kalaba is like we have protested the failure by the President to come and be the guest of honour. So there are instructions from State House that Kalaba should leave this place. The officer commanding from Masaiti Police Station came and he had quite a long meeting with us Church leaders.

“The officer commanding said we can continue with our prayers provided that Kalaba should be told to leave. The officer insisted that us church leaders should be the ones to tell Kalaba to leave! He was even threatening to bring police officers to teargas these people here if Kalaba does not leave. His argument was that this church conference will turn into an illegal assembly if there is a politician such as Mr Kalaba. Anyway, I don’t know….”

One church leader was seen whispering to Kalaba.

After offering was collected, Kalaba and his delegation stood and left the arena at 11:05 hours.

Asked what prompted him to leave before the main service could start, the former foreign affairs minister said: “The church pastors came to tell me that ‘we have been told by the State….’”
“A man called Lewis Chisenga, who was the organising chairperson for the general conference, is the one who was sent to me and he said ‘sir, yes we invited you but we are under pressure from government that you don’t stay here. It’s unfortunate that this has happened. It’s like you are contesting against the President and so help us.’ I told them that go and announce that you don’t want me here but he said ‘we can’t do that,”’ Kalaba recounted.

He described his ejection from the service as barbaric, inhuman, and behaviour “only fit for the animal kingdom.”

“Prayers should not be politicised! I was merely invited and I came in peace to pray with them. I had several other Church commitments but because they were having an annual conference, I said let me go and pray with them. But that the government could reach such an extent is quite unfortunate. We are a Christian nation which professes Christ as Lord and to take politics into the Church in that manner is quite unfortunate,” lamented Kalaba.

Meanwhile, on his way from Masaiti, Kalaba made a stop-over in Luanshya and shared pleasantries with excited people within the town’s central business district.