A retired principal auditor is demanding payment of K3.5 million in compensation over house number 257, Chilenje, from National Heritage and Conservation Commission (NHCC) before it can be declared a national monument. The house was once occupied by former President Kenneth Kaunda. Mr Sebastian Katalilo bought the house from the council when his mother failed to buy it.

It was occupied by his mother, who moved into it after the Kaunda family moved out in 1959. He claimed the compensation has been due since 2015. But NHCC regional director Kagosi Mwamulowe has described Mr Katalilo as unreasonable and exaggerated, equating the demand to an annual budget for a Government department and or an amount that can be used to improve a number of heritage sites across the country. The house was occupied by Dr Kaunda from 1955 to 1959 when he was secretary of the African National Congress (ANC).

It was at that house that Dr Kaunda was arrested in 1957 for subversion along with other ANC leaders. Harry Nkumbula, then ANC president, also previously occupied the house, which is considered as a venue for the country’s independence struggle. Mr Katalilo said the house, which was occupied by his mother, Salome Chapewa, since the 60s, was sold to him in 1996 after former President Frederick Chiluba directed that all council houses be sold to sitting tenants. He bought He bought the house at K10.

“My mother asked me to buy that house as she had grown old and I gladly took the offer and paid the money to Lusaka City Council,” he said.
Mr Katalilo said the NHCC, through Mr Mwamulowe, wrote to him on February 9, 2015 declaring its intention to acquire the house as it was of great historic value.

The letter by the commission, which was availed to the Sunday Mail, specified Government’s intention to take ownership of the house to effectively maintain the property and allow visitors easy access. But Mr Katalilo said in an interview with the Sunday Mail that three years down the line, NHCC has failed to pay for the property, which he initially pegged at K8 million but later reduced to K3.5 million.

“Any property of such great historic value to the nation or in the political history of Zambia fetches a great price or merits a great price under normal circumstances and this is why K8 million was proposed after wider consultation and unanimously endorsed as compensation,” Mr Katalilo said.
He said the initial proposed amount of K8 million was adequate and effective compensation to salvage him from poverty permanently.

But Mr Mwamulowe said in a separate interview that NHCC cannot and will not procure the one-bedroom house at the proposed amount as it is unreasonable. He urged Mr Katalilo to level up and negotiate for compensation faithfully and genuinely as he risks losing the property without a penny under the Heritage Act.

Mr Mwamulowe said Mr Katalilo should be grateful that NHCC offered to compensate him as option number one because under the Heritage Act, the commission can still declare the property a national monument and protect it in national interest. He added that Government recently passed a policy on liberation sites under which House number 257 falls, adding that no-one can claim property which is supposed to belong to the general public.

He explained that Dr Kaunda first lived in Mr Katalilo’s property before he moved to House No.394, where he lived up to 1962. The property was already declared a national monument. There is also another national monument on Luembu Street which was used as an office by UNIP.