By Emmanuel Mwamba
Kenneth Maduma’s Picture
Kennedy Limwanya Ought to have Acted With More Empathy and Sensitivity
Our Obsession With Social Media
By Amb. Emmanuel Mwamba
Former Deputy Adminstrative Assistant in the Office of the Fourth President and former State House Chief Analyst for Press and Public Relations, Kennedy Limwanya went to visit veteran ZNBC Broadcaster and former Zambian Diplomat to Egypt, Kenneth Maduma.
Kennedy visited the family at their farm in Mungule in Chibombo district and took a picture of a clearly unprepared Maduma and splashed it to the media!
According to former ZNBC Director General Chibamba F. Kanyama, Kenneth has a house in Rhodespark in Lusaka and has moved to his farm. At the farm, he is renovating his main farm house and has moved to the servant quarters (where the picture was taken).
However to the uninitiated and looking at the picture alone, you would conclude that Mr. Kenneth Maduma and his family have descended into extreme squalor.
Of further concern, as Chibamba has disclosed, Mr. Maduma is battling with a medical condition that’s causing memory loss and lapses and may require further medical investigation to ascertain it and determine subsequent appropriate treatment.
With this knowledge, why would Limwanya take and release such a picture? Is Mr. Maduma in a state where he can give informed consent?
Everytime I visited hospitals to meet accident victims or sick prominent people, if a picture was required, I went to great extent to prepare the patients or in many cases showed me (without the showing patient at the bedside).
In many, many cases, I didn’t take the picture at all.
I also sought permission not just from the patient but from the family or spouse(and many times showed them the picture).
Just recently I spent time with a senior journalist and dear friend of mine, Patson Phiri. Patson has previously worked for the Times of Zambia and the Zambia Daily Mail. He is currently working with the Lusaka Water & Sewerage Company.
However, Patson suffered a stroke on a work trip to Malawi in 2019. I was not aware of this until this January.
He has been in-and-out of the University Teaching Hospital (UTH) and has been given treatment in the last two years.
From the reports I got, and the current condition, it is clear that Patson has made good progress and is now on the mend.
I visited Patson. He immediately asked me about how I had settled in Ethiopia and the work at the African Union (a very good sign).
I refused to take or publish the pictures. I continue to pray that Patson makes a full recovery.
So Limwanya’s apparent good deed of a visit to a senior journalist has backfired.
Limwanya is an experienced and senior journalist and he knows the ethical boundaries relating to a matter such as this.
Limwanya appears insensitive and quick to shame a national hero.
Let’s not lose sight, Mr. Maduma needs help to treat whatever condition he could be battling with.
What’s your view?