He suffered a minor stroke in April and may leave the day-to-day running of government to his new Vice-President Rupiah Bwezani Banda...
The new Vice-President Rupiah Banda 69 served as Foreign Minister under ex-President Kenneth Kaunda and helped turn Eastern province from its traditional support for Kaunda to the MMD...
The founder's big boots Some known members on the party's Central Committee are Secretary General Sebastian Zulu Rupiah Banda in charge of foreign affairs Mwashikanda Liso for youth affairs and Pickson Chitambala for publicity...
In KK' s absence party veterans play their own games - Sebastian Zulu UNIP' s Secretary General; Malimba Masheke its Chairman; Professor Patrick Mvunga its Legal Affairs guru; and Rupiah Banda its unpopular Foreign Affairs Chairman who backs Mvungu for the presidency...
Kaunda's UNIP is busy with faction-fighting between easterners and westerners while UNIP's Foreign Affairs Spokesman Rupiah Banda has tried without much success to take advantage of Kaunda' s travels abroad...