Opposition politician and lawyer Celestine Mukandila has challenged the cancellation of his National Registration Card and passport, maintaining that he is a Zambian citizen by descent and calling on authorities to disclose the legal and evidentiary basis for invalidating his national documents.<\/p>\n
Mukandila said in a statement that he was born in 1990 in Lubumbashi, Democratic Republic of Congo, to a Zambian mother and a Congolese father. He said his mother is Ushi, from Matanda Village in Mansa, and that his maternal family has roots in Luapula Province.<\/p>\n
His statement followed what opposition leader Fred M\u2019membe described as a Government Gazette notice issued by the Ministry of Home Affairs and Internal Security invalidating Mukandila\u2019s NRC and passport on grounds that the documents had been obtained through \u201cfraud, false declaration, and misrepresentation.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mukandila rejected any suggestion that being born outside Zambia made him a foreign national.<\/p>\n
He said his claim to Zambian nationality was based on citizenship by descent through his mother and cited Article 36 of the Constitution, which he said provides for citizenship by descent for a person born outside Zambia when at least one parent was a citizen by birth or descent at the time of the person\u2019s birth.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy position is therefore straightforward: I acquired Zambian citizenship by descent at birth through my Zambian mother,\u201d Mukandila said.<\/p>\n