Eastern Province Turns Out as Hichilema Pledges Roads, Hospitals and Jobs

President Hakainde Hichilema has swept through Eastern Province on an energetic campaign tour, carrying a message of delivery and connectivity to district after district ahead of the 13 August election.

The tour opened in Katete, where the President pledged a new district hospital, an improved Katete–Chadiza Road, wider mobile coverage and more dams for farming. In Chadiza he made headlines by promising to tar the long-awaited Chadiza–Chipata Road, known locally as the "HH Road", for the first time since independence, alongside upgrades to the Chadiza–Chanida and Chadiza–Vubwi routes.

Agriculture ran through every stop. The President vowed to expand the Farmer Input Support Programme and end input-sharing, and pointed to reforms already letting FRA maize farmers be paid within days by mobile money. In Vubwi he pledged to upgrade the Chipata–Vubwi Road and build a skills training centre, while in Chipata he announced plans to widen the Great East Road, start the Chipata–Lundazi Road, complete the 100MW Chipata West Solar Project and turn Chipata Hospital into a state-of-the-art General Hospital.

Continuing the tour, the President thanked Kasenengwa for a strong turnout, hailing free education as "a game changer" and crediting the enhanced CDF for new feeder roads, dams and water projects. In Chipangali he promised the district would keep receiving "its fair share of the national cake", and in Mambwe he pledged a college, a university, a skills centre, an upgraded Chipata–Mfuwe Road and stronger action on human-wildlife conflict.

Throughout, Mr Hichilema highlighted five years of progress, from free education and Cash for Work to a Social Cash Transfer now rising to K1,000, and pledged more jobs for teachers, nurses, soldiers and police. He urged Eastern Province to renew the UPND's mandate on 13 August.