Lusaka | April 16, 2026 – It was not the usual quiet afternoon at the National Prosecution Authority (NPA). A delegation from Kenya’s Financial Reporting Centre (FRC) walked in, not as tourists, but as students of Zambia’s financial intelligence and prosecution machinery.
Zambia may not shout out loud about her progress. But when a neighbour like Kenya, a regional leader in financial intelligence with a sophisticated financial reporting centre of its own, sends a team to learn from you, the message is clear – something right is happening here.
The delegation, led by Kenya’s Financial Reporting Centre (FRC) Director General Ms. Saitoti Maika, MBS, has spent the week crisscrossing Lusaka.
Their host and delegation leader of the benchmarking team on the Zambian side was Mr. Diphat Tembo, a prominent anti-money laundering expert and Director of the Compliance and Prevention Department at the Financial Intelligence Centre. Mr. Tembo personally guided the delegation through meetings with the FIC, Zambia Revenue Authority, Drug Enforcement Commission, and the Zambia Institute of Chartered Accountants.
They have sat with the Financial Intelligence Centre (FIC), the Zambia Revenue Authority, the Drug Enforcement Commission’s AMLIU unit, and the Zambia Institute of Chartered Accountants.
Their mission?
To learn how Zambia tracks dirty money, builds typologies, and prosecutes financial crime.
Today, they came to the NPA.
With the learned Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) , Mr. Gilbert A. Phiri, SC, away on official duty, the delegation was received by Ms. Nkumbiza Mumba, Chief State Advocate. She did not stand alone.
Beside her was a formidable line-up of the NPA’s finest:
- Mrs. Gracilia Chipulu-Mulenga, Deputy Chief State Advocate (Economic and Financial Crimes Department)
- Ms. Makumba Gwendoline Kashishi, Deputy Chief State Advocate (Office of the DPP)
- Mrs. Martha Tembo Weza, Deputy Chief State Advocate (Environmental and Wildlife Crimes Department)
- Mr. Mukuma Chilila Chipawa, Principal State Advocate (Economic and Financial Crimes Department)
- Ms. Rhodah Malibata Jackson, Senior State Advocate (Asset Forfeiture Department)
- Mr. Julius Muraya, Consultant from the Basel Institute
- Mr. Hastings Sichone, Senior Public Prosecutor and member of the Inter-Agency Collaboration and Coordination Framework Secretariat
The FRC is Kenya’s financial intelligence unit. Its benchmarking visit is not ceremonial. It is about hard questions: How do you spot new red flags? How do you use big data to catch anomalies? How do you collaborate across borders to follow the money?
Zambia’s FIC has been hosting them all week. But the NPA’s role is unique – because intelligence without prosecution is just paperwork.
The meeting was brisk, focused, and warm. The Kenyans asked sharp questions. The Zambians answered with the quiet confidence of a prosecution service that has been putting away financial criminals.
Ms. Maika, clearly impressed, thanked the NPA for its openness. Ms. Mumba, speaking for the DPP, restated Zambia’s commitment to regional cooperation.
The benchmarking programme wraps up tomorrow with a closing ceremony at the FIC. But the real takeaway is already clear: Zambia and Kenya are not just neighbours. They are allies in the fight against financial crime.
And on a Thursday morning in Lusaka, that alliance got a little stronger.