The context and timing of the Lady Justice’s appointment to the highest judicial position in the land raises important questions about perceptions in a country where corruption is widespread. President Edgar Lungu named Justice Mambilima to the post just two weeks after she declared him winner of the tightly contested presidential poll whose results are still controversial.

The whole Zambian legal system needs to be revamped. Still deeply rooted in its colonial origins, the system has stifled creativity and stunted the possible independent growth of the country’s legal institutions, law making, judicial decisions and legal scholarship.