'Don't say we were not told': at Samu Lya Moomba, the President's first ceremony since re-election becomes a drought warning

The traditional ceremony had a message carved into it this year. President Hakainde Hichilema used the 2026 Samu Lya Moomba traditional ceremony of Chief Choongo of the Tonga people in Monze District — his first traditional ceremony since his re-election — to deliver the season's bluntest food-security warning: an El Niño-induced drought is coming, and households must keep their own maize before anyone else's.

"All the traditional leaders, all of us, can we inform our people to retain as much maize as possible for your own family consumption, because we have a drought — and don't say we were not told," the President said. "Please keep as much maize so that we can protect our children from going hungry." He assured the nation that the Government will ensure no one dies of hunger, but placed the first responsibility at the household level, and gave it a technology: granaries, not sacks. Grain stored in sacks, he said, is grain that gets sold when money runs short.

Then came the economics of storage. The Government is working with the Food Reserve Agency to rehabilitate existing community storage sheds, cutting the cost of hauling maize from production areas to depots and back. And private investors were given a number: "A 30-by-20 storage shed under the FRA specifications is only costing K1.8 million. You can invest back in your village. K1.8 million and FRA will rent your shed. But it will preserve the crop right at the local communities." The President urged farmers in Chief Choongo's area into wheat and soya bean — priority crops under the Grow Zambia Agenda — and offered himself as evidence, saying he has cultivated 400 hectares of wheat in the area, sold at US$550 a tonne. "A hungry country cannot be a happy country," he said, promising significant resources for water provision in drought-prone areas.

The ceremony also heard the second term's political weather. "I will be tough this term," the President told newly elected MPs, demanding they work for the people who elected them rather than occupy seats — and he responded to traditional leaders' request for a pontoon with a pledge from his own pocket. The drought warning lands as seasonal forecasts point to an El Niño event in the 2026/27 rainfall season, two years after the last drought carved into harvests and power generation alike. The granary advice is, in part, a lesson from that year: the State cannot be the only warehouse.

Sources: Zambia Daily Mail, "Keep enough maize for homes" — Catherine Bwalya and Mathews Malazika (5 Oct 2026); Lusaka Times, "Hichilema tells chiefs to keep enough maize for homes as drought warning stands" (5 Oct 2026); Zambian Eye, "'I will be tough this term' — President Hichilema" (4 Oct 2026).