06/08/2026
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๐๐ฆ๐๐ญ๐ฐ๐ข ๐๐๐ฉ๐ฎ๐ฅ๐ข , ๐ฒ๐๐ฉ๐ฎ๐ฅ๐๐ฉ๐ฎ๐ฅ๐ ๐๐ฒ๐ the ears are beggars, they beg all the time and from everyone. Under the gavel of Chief Justice Dr. Mumba Malila, 378 names were called to the Zambian Bar during High Court Call Day ceremonies.
Among them stood a man whose ears never stopped begging for knowledge Assistant Superintendent Kabaso Musonda of the Zambia Correctional Service, who began this journey not in a wig and gown but filing paperwork behind a registry counter.
Born in Kitwe to Joseph Benson Musonda and Margaret Kabaso Musonda, he started at Matete Primary School before six formative years at Mukuba Boys Secondary School, where membership in the Debate Club sharpened an instinct for argument and analysis that would, decades later, carry him into a courtroom as counsel rather than clerk.
The law called early: a Certificate from the National Institute of Public Administration in 2005, a Diploma in 2007, and by 2008 enrolment for a Bachelor of Laws at the Zambian Open University. That same year brought his first government post, a Registry Clerk's role that moved him through the Copperbelt Regional Office, Mufulira Prison, and, from 2009, Prison Service Headquarters in Kabwe.
๐๐ฎ๐ฅ๐๐ง๐๐ ๐ง๐ ๐๐ฎ๐ง๐ญ๐ฎ, ๐ ๐ฐ๐ข๐ฌ๐ก๐ข๐๐ ๐ฆ๐๐ง๐จ, one who talks with people gets ideas. For a decade he worked the paper trails of the Zambia's Correctional Service system without ever wearing its uniform, and it was in that decade of conversation , with officers, with inmates, with the institution itself ,that his understanding deepened. A transfer to Immigration Department Headquarters in April 2018 might have settled the matter for good, but something else was stirring: the Zambia Correctional Service's shift from a punitive model toward rehabilitation had changed what the institution meant to him.
๐๐ฆ๐ฐ๐๐ฎ๐ฆ๐ ๐๐ฌ๐ก๐ข๐ข๐ค๐๐ฅ๐ ๐ง๐ฌ๐๐ค๐, ๐๐ค๐ฎ๐ฆ๐๐ฐ๐ ๐ค๐ฎ ๐๐๐ง๐๐ง๐ค๐ฐ๐ a man who does not sit with others in the rest hut envies his companions, Assistant Superintendent Musonda sat in the same hut with others and his goal was clear . He felt, in his own words, unfinished business with the Service, and would not remain apart from it. When recruitment opened that September, he applied, reported for training on 5 November 2018, and graduated the following year from Nyango Training School as a Warder, deployed to Medium Correctional Centre.
There he passed through the Farms Section, hospital es**rt duty, and the post of Gate Keeper before a seven-month Middle Management Course at Bothwell Imakando Staff Training College earned him promotion to Inspector in 2021 and a posting to the Reception Section work that kept him in near-constant contact with the courts as he es**rted inmates to their hearings.
๐๐ค๐ฎ๐ฅ๐ฒ๐ ๐ฌ๐ฎ๐ค๐ฎ , ๐ค๐ฎ๐๐ข๐ฉ๐ข๐ฅ๐ข๐ฅ๐ to eat a masuku fruit properly, you must suck it patiently; the fruits of life reward only those committed enough to work patiently and Assistant Superintendent Kabaso has always understood this virtue of life itself. A move to the Legal Department at Correctional Service Headquarters followed in 2022, and 2023 brought a rare distinction: promotion by the Commissioner General himself, one of only three officers so elevated during that year's review of the Prison Rules. With a patient approach to academia , he enrolled at the Zambia Institute of Advanced Legal Education, and in 2024 he cleared five of the Bar Examinations on his first attempt.
๐๐ฆ๐๐๐ฅ๐ ๐ฎ๐ฆ๐จ ๐จ๐ฆ๐๐๐ฅ๐, ๐๐ฆ๐๐ง๐ฌ๐จ ๐ฒ๐ ๐๐๐ง๐ญ๐ฎ ๐ญ๐๐ฒ๐๐ฅ๐ฒ๐ Carry on with your work, people's eyes don't eat, even in sickness he never dared to stop trying or circum to people's judgement, he understood that he was the Invictus of his own journey.The momentum broke in April 2025. Preparing to sit the remaining papers, he fell gravely ill and was diagnosed with a subdural hematoma, a diagnosis that put the examinations and far more than the examinations , out of reach.
He attributes his survival to swift intervention by the Service Command and, in particular, the Commissioner General Mr Fredrick .S.S. Chilukutu, without whose timely support, he says, he might not have lived to see what came next. Promotion to Assistant Superintendent found him regardless later that year.
๐๐ฐ๐๐ข๐ง๐ ๐ข๐ฅ๐ ๐ฆ๐ฎ ๐ฆ๐ฎ๐ฌ๐ก๐ข๐ญ๐ฎ, ๐ญ๐จ๐ฆ๐๐ฐ๐ ๐ง๐ฌ๐ฐ๐๐ง๐ฌ๐ฐ๐,One who enters the forest does not listen to the sounds of footsteps behind him; he marches on to the end and such is Counsel Assistant Superintendent Kabaso Musonda. In 2026, restored, he returned to the Institute to face the six outstanding papers. He passed them all. His graduate research looked forward rather than back, examining the use of alternatives to incarceration as a means of reducing congestion in Zambia's prisons , a subject drawn not from theory but from years spent watching overcrowding strain the very rehabilitation model that had drawn him back to the Service in the first place.
Today, as one of 378 new advocates admitted to the Zambian Bar, Counsel Assistant Superintendent Kabaso Musonda takes a seat in a courtroom he once only es**rted others through.
He is unambiguous about where the credit belongs: the Service Command, for backing his legal education and his medical care; the Commissioner General, for an intervention he says he owes his life to his wife chipo moomba Musonda my first born Joan ,second born Shekinah and the little one Truth , for the steadfast support that carried him through both the books and the hospital bed; and the ZCS Legal Unit, the Legal Aid Board Kabwe, and the wider correctional family who believed in him throughout.
From a registry desk in Kabwe to an advocate's seat before the Chief Justice, his path stands as a reminder that within the Zambia Correctional Service, rank is a starting point, not a ceiling.
Written By Superintendent Cornelius Mwanza
