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The High Court in Lusaka has rejected an application by Kaweche Kaunda to have the remains of his father, Zambia’s founding President Dr. Kenneth Kaunda to lie at a farm instead of a designated official burial place for Heads of State.
Kaunda died on June 17 aged 97 and is expected to be buried today July 7 after 21 days of mourning.
He had been admitted to Maina Soko Military Hospital in Lusaka and was being treated for pneumonia.
Some of his family members filed a petition at the High Court on Tuesday, seeking to stop the State from burying him at the presidential site in Lusaka.
His son Kaweche asked the court to direct the State to allow the family to bury him at his farm residence, next to his wife Betty, as per his wishes.
In court documents dated July 6, Kaweche asked the court to declare “null and void” the government’s plan to bury Kaunda at the official Embassy Park site.
Delivering a judgment in which Kaweche had sued the Secretary to Cabinet to compel the government to hand over the body of Dr. Kaunda and be burried at the farm, Judge Wilfred Kopa Muma said the case required that public interest was given consideration as it overrides personal or family interests.
Judge Mumba said he sympathized with some family members that wanted this matter to transpose to a private or family funeral.
He said Dr. Kaunda was not an ordinary man.
Judge Muma said there was no arguable case fit for consideration at the substantive hearing.
Meanwhile, the burial program is almost to its end, as the body of the fallen statesman has already been lowered.
