Wynter warns Kambwili: You cannot disclose state secrets anyhow

Chishimba Kambwili

Rainbow Party secretary general Wynter Kabimba says expelled Roan PF Member of Parliament Chishimba Kambwili cannot go about disclosing classified information just because he is out of government.

In the wake of his expulsion from the ruling party, the outspoken former information minister has held a series of interviews during which he has hinted that the digital migration deal between the state broadcaster ZNBC and a Chinese company Star Times was riddled with corruption.

Kambwili was serving as information minister and chief government spokesperson at the time the deal was sealed.

But Kabimba warns that at the rate at which Kambwili is moving with his disclosure of government secrets, he risks being arrested.

The opposition leader told online publication News Diggers! in an interview that Kambwili is bound by the oath of office and that he needed to be careful when talking about government affairs involving information of confidential nature.

“The oath of office binds you to the information especially information of a confidential nature, secret nature that comes your way when you are serving as a Minister. So it binds you, you are bound by that oath even when you have been dropped or even if you resign. The idea is that the state must be protected. The idea is that you only came up with that information not in your capacity but by virtue of the fact that you were a serving public officer in a position of Minister,” Kabimba said.

The former minister of justice stated that Kambwili had the duty to protect the State by not disclosing any information that would harm or jeopardise government operations.

“So you cant just say what you want to say or disclose what you want to disclose when you are out of government. So ba Kambwili has to be very careful on what he says and in fact under the Secret of Oath Act, it is an offence, you can actually go to jail. So he has to be very careful on what he says because he may just land himself in problems. Even you yourselves that are reporting you have to be very careful, because the man at the rate he is talking, am not sure myself whether or not he is even listening to himself,” said Kabimba.

“You know in the United States, they have what is called classified documents or classified data and it only expires after a period of 30 years. So after 30 years if you served as Secretary of States for example or president you can then write another book or an additional set of memos where you can talk about how you invaded Iraq… The presumption of law is that at that stage, that kind of disclosure will no longer be damaging to the State.”