Stanley Sakala was killed at an independent parliamentary candidate’s campaign base weeks before Zambia voted. The election has since been held, winners declared and campaigns packed away. But nearly two months after his throat was cut, police have made no arrests and say they have no links to his killer.
By Mavis Muchiya in Mazabuka, Southern Province
Zambia’s 2026 general election produced winners and losers. In southern province, it also left behind an unexplained killing.
Sakala, a 31-year-old mechanic from Lusaka, was found dead at the campaign base of independent parliamentary candidate Confucius Mweene in Chivuna, Magoye East Constituency, on the night of June 29. His throat had been cut.
Nearly two months later, no one has been arrested for his murder and police say they have yet to establish a link to whoever killed him.
“As the police, we are still investigating the case. Despite intensifying our investigations, we haven’t had links to this murder case,” Southern Province Police Commissioner Moono Namalongo said on August 24. “We haven’t arrested anyone yet. The young man we arrested was later released after some interviews.”
The election that brought Sakala to Chivuna in Mazabuka district has since come and gone. Mweene lost the Magoye East parliamentary race to UPND candidate Mweemba Malambo. But the killing that interrupted that campaign remains unresolved.
Screams from a campaign base
Sakala had travelled from Lusaka to Chivuna to work on vehicles belonging to Mweene’s family during the campaign.
Mweene said Sakala was a longtime family mechanic, not his driver as had been widely reported on social media, and had been in Chivuna for only about three weeks when he was killed.
At around 23:00 hours on June 29, Mweene said his daughter telephoned him after hearing what sounded like a struggle inside Sakala’s room.
“I advised her not to open the door but wait,” he said.
Mweene then contacted a police officer who lived some distance away and arranged transport for him. When the officer arrived and the room was opened, Sakala was found lying in a pool of blood with his throat cut.
Two weeks later, when MakanDay visited the campaign base, traces of dried blood were still visible on the floor and mattress in the room where Sakala was killed. The room had largely been left untouched as police continued their investigations.
Was Sakala the target?
What remains unknown is why Sakala was killed — and whether he was even the intended target. Mweene believes the killing may have been connected to him.
“I feel this murder was targeted at me. Sakala was only about three weeks old here,” he said.
There is, however, no evidence establishing that the killing was politically motivated or that Mweene was the intended target.
Sakala was killed at the campaign base of a parliamentary candidate in the middle of an election campaign, circumstances that inevitably raised questions about a possible political connection.
A campaign disrupted
For Mweene, Sakala’s murder became part of the story of an election he eventually lost. He said his campaign was suspended for more than 30 days following the killing, disrupting his ability to reach voters during a critical period.
“We lost a lot of time because of what happened. It affected our ability to reach out to the people and continue campaigning as we had planned.”
Mweene eventually lost Magoye East to Malambo.
Whether the disruption caused his defeat cannot be established. But Sakala’s killing had brought political activity at his campaign base to a standstill.
Fear, but few answers
When MakanDay visited the nearby community two weeks after the killing, residents were reluctant to discuss what had happened. Some refused to speak altogether.
One woman, speaking anonymously, said residents feared that whoever killed Sakala remained among them.
“We have never experienced such here, where a human being is slaughtered like a chicken. No! We are scared because the murderer is still moving about freely,” she said.
Sakala’s family has also grown reluctant to speak publicly.
“As a family, we can’t speak. We have gone mute just like government is. I can’t say anything for now,” family spokesperson Manunga Nyondwa told MakanDay on July 27.
Police initially detained a man who had been with Sakala on the night he was killed. But police commissioner, Namalongo confirmed that the man was subsequently released after questioning.
The election ended. The mystery did not.
Sakala was buried at Mutumbi Cemetery in Lusaka on July 3. Six weeks later, Zambians went to the polls.
Independent parliamentary candidate Confucius Mweene outside his campaign base in Chivuna, Magoye East Constituency, where Stanley Sakala was found killed on June 29, 2026. Photo: MakanDay/Mavis Muchiya
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