The Zambian Observer reported on Monday evening, 27 October, that the Lusaka High Court has granted bail to Kelvin Kaunda, the NRPUP Member of Parliament for Lima, after eleven days in detention. According to that report, bail was set at K30,000 with two working sureties in the same sum, bound by recognisance. No other outlet read for this edition had reported the decision by the time of publication.
The sequence that led to Monday's hearing is well documented. News Diggers reported on 24 October that Judge Kaumbi Ndulo had ordered the State to present Kaunda before him on 27 October for the hearing of his application for bail pending trial. Kaunda had been held since 15 October, when, as Zambia Monitor reported, he was arrested shortly after the High Court adjourned the hearing of a petition against his election. He is charged with assault occasioning actual bodily harm under section 248 of the Penal Code, over an alleged assault on a UPND supporter during a campaign roadshow on 7 August. He was first held at Lubwa police post and later moved to Mwembeshi Prison, a transfer confirmed to News Diggers by the Zambia Correctional Service's head of public relations, Superintendent Cornelius Mwanza.
In his affidavit, reported by Zambia Monitor on 21 October, Kaunda said he had not been brought before a court, that the offence is bailable, that he has a fixed address in Lusaka and is not a flight risk, and that he would provide traceable sureties and not interfere with witnesses. His lawyers argued that an arrested person must be brought before a court within 24 hours or, where that is not practicable, considered for release on bond under section 33 of the Criminal Procedure Code. The Zambian Observer reports that three MPs had stood as sureties for police bond and that he remained in custody even after those conditions were met, which is why he turned to the High Court.
The petition
Kaunda is also the respondent in a petition brought by the UPND's candidate in Lima, Lee Mukupa, alleging electoral malpractice; Zambia Monitor gives the August result as 22,760 votes for Kaunda to 8,041 for Mukupa. The petition is being heard at the Lusaka High Court by Judge Derrick Mulenga of the Ndola High Court. The Zambian Observer reported on Tuesday that Kaunda, 43, gave evidence on Monday and denied that there had been widespread violence in the 13 August election, saying there were isolated incidents. He told the court he voted at Ballastone Secondary School, went on to Eden University and later escorted the NRPUP presidential candidate, Brian Mundubile, to vote at Olympia Secondary School, and that Lima's 13 polling stations recorded turnout of about 47.7 per cent with no objections raised after the counts.
A second witness, a 60-year-old supervisor at Eden University who said Kaunda was his employer, described an incident in July in which, he said, a group arriving in UPND-branded vehicles injured three workers at the university's construction site. Under cross-examination he denied that his evidence was motivated by a wish to protect his job. The petition's allegations are the petitioner's case and remain to be decided; the court has given no ruling.
Confirmed vs. alleged
Confirmed: Kaunda was arrested on 15 October and charged with assault occasioning actual bodily harm (Zambia Monitor; News Diggers). Judge Ndulo set the bail hearing for 27 October (News Diggers). He gave evidence in the Lima petition on Monday (Zambian Observer).
Alleged or unverified: The grant of bail, its terms and the judge's reasons rest on a single report, by the Zambian Observer. The assault allegation is untested: Kaunda has not been tried and no plea has been reported. The petition's allegations of violence are denied and undecided.
Sources: The Zambian Observer, “High Court frees Kaunda after 11 days in detention” (27 Oct 2026); News Diggers, “Court sets Oct 27 for hearing of Kaunda's bail application” (24 Oct 2026); Zambia Monitor, “Lima MP seeks bail after languishing in police custody” (21 Oct 2026); The Zambian Observer, “Kaunda denies widespread violence in Lima election petition” (27 Oct 2026).