Mwamba Peni, who once managed government funds at Cabinet Office as Permanent Secretary for Special Duties, has asked the Lusaka High Court to order his immediate release from police custody. He says his continued detention over a government vehicle dispute is unlawful.
By The Zambian Economist Analyst | Lusaka | 31 August 2026
Key Takeaways
- Mwamba Peni, former Permanent Secretary for Special Duties at Cabinet Office, has petitioned the Lusaka High Court for a writ of habeas corpus against Attorney General Mulilo Kabesha.
- He says he was apprehended on 20 August 2026 by officers from the Crime One Unit, ZICTA and the Office of the President over a GRZ Mitsubishi Pajero, registration BAP 9646, that he says was officially assigned to him as a civil servant.
- He was formally arrested on 21 August for conversion not amounting to theft, an offence he says carries a maximum six-month sentence or a fine and is bailable.
- Peni says he secured two working sureties for police bond, but officers did not process his release despite repeated follow-ups by his lawyers.
- A habeas corpus application compels whoever is holding a detainee to justify that detention before a judge; the case adds to a run of 2026 court challenges testing how the state handles people connected to the outgoing government.
A former Permanent Secretary has taken his own government to court to get out of police custody. Mwamba Peni, who held the Special Duties portfolio at Cabinet Office, has filed a habeas corpus application at the Lusaka High Court naming Attorney General Mulilo Kabesha as respondent, arguing that police have held him beyond what the law allows over a dispute involving a government vehicle.
What Peni is asking the court to do
A writ of habeas corpus is a court order compelling whoever holds a person in custody to bring that person before a judge and justify the detention. Peni’s application asks the High Court to do exactly that: order those holding him to produce him and show why he should not be released immediately. The case is filed against the Attorney General, the government’s chief legal officer, who is the standard respondent when a citizen challenges the lawfulness of state detention.
The vehicle at the centre of the case
According to Peni’s court papers, his troubles began on 20 August 2026, when he was apprehended by a joint team from the Crime One Unit, the Zambia Information and Communications Technology Authority (ZICTA) and the Office of the President. The dispute centres on a GRZ Mitsubishi Pajero, registration number BAP 9646, which Peni says was officially assigned to him while he served as a civil servant. He was formally arrested the following day, 21 August, on a charge of conversion not amounting to theft.
Conversion not amounting to theft is a lesser property offence under Zambian law: it applies where someone uses or deals with property belonging to another without authority, but without the intent permanently to deprive the owner of it that theft requires. Peni says the charge carries a maximum sentence of six months’ imprisonment or a fine, and that it is bailable.
Why a bailable offence still has him in custody
This is the part of Peni’s case that turns a routine property dispute into a constitutional question. He says he secured two working sureties, the standard requirement for police bond in Zambia, and that his lawyers repeatedly followed up with officers to have him released. Despite this, he says, the police did not process his release. If those facts hold up in court, the issue is no longer whether Peni committed an offence carrying a maximum six-month term; it is whether police can keep someone in custody on a bailable charge after bond conditions have been met.
| Detail | What the application says |
|---|---|
| Applicant | Mwamba Peni, former Permanent Secretary for Special Duties, Cabinet Office |
| Respondent | Attorney General Mulilo Kabesha |
| Relief sought | Writ of habeas corpus; immediate release from police custody |
| Apprehended | 20 August 2026, by Crime One Unit, ZICTA and Office of the President officers |
| Formally arrested | 21 August 2026 |
| Charge | Conversion not amounting to theft |
| Maximum penalty (per applicant) | Six months’ imprisonment or a fine; bailable |
| Bond status (per applicant) | Two working sureties secured; release not processed |
From Cabinet Office appointment to police custody
Peni’s appointment as Permanent Secretary for Special Duties at Cabinet Office was itself contested from the start. When President Hakainde Hichilema named him to the post in December 2021, the appointment drew immediate objections from UPND cadres, who publicly called for it to be revoked, according to Lusaka Times reporting at the time. Peni has since left that post; the current case does not turn on the circumstances of his departure, which have not been detailed in the court filings reported so far.
Part of a wider pattern of 2026 court challenges
Peni’s habeas corpus filing is not the first this year. In a separate case before the same court, the wife of former Lunte MP Mutotwe Kafwaya used the same legal instrument to seek a court order over her husband’s detention, a case that ended when Kafwaya was shot and later died during a security operation. Other 2026 cases have tested different edges of state power over the same period: the NRPUP leadership treason docket has grown to 18 accused, and six parliamentary election results are before the Lusaka High Court on petitions from losing candidates. Each case is legally distinct, but together they show a High Court docket increasingly occupied with challenges to how the state treats people connected to the outgoing administration.
What happens next
A habeas corpus application is typically heard urgently, since the whole point of the remedy is to test detention without delay. The Attorney General’s office will need to respond to Peni’s account of the arrest, the charge and the bond process; police will need to explain, if the facts are as Peni describes them, why bond conditions that were met did not lead to release. The Zambian Economist will follow the case as it moves through the High Court.
Related reading
- Kafwaya’s Wife Seeks Court Order Over Husband’s Detention
- NRPUP Leaders Charged With Treason as Case Docket Rises to 18
- Six Parliamentary Seats Challenged Before the Lusaka High Court
- Kafwaya Was Shot and Later Died: Police on the Kabulonga Raid That Killed the Former Lunte MP
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