Home of former Zambian leader raided in drugs investigation

When he stepped down as President of Zambia last year, Frederick Chiluba was anticipating a quiet retirement. Since then, however, he has become the subject of an unprecedented drugs and corruption investigation.

Police forced their way into Mr Chiluba's home, after he refused to let them in, and searched it for drugs on Saturday, confiscating documents, a rifle and a shotgun. A day earlier, the Lusaka High Court had ruled that his immunity from prosecution could be lifted, though it gave him 30 days to appeal. The houses of his lawyers, Robert Simeza and John Sangwa, were searched yesterday.

The arrest of Mr Chiluba – just a year ago Zambia's most powerful man – would send reverberations around Africa, particularly with leaders such as Kenya's President, Daniel arap Moi, who intends to leave office soon. Until now, even the continent's most corrupt leaders have evaded prosecution.

One Western ambassador said: "I have been shaken and excited by what I have seen." Ordinary Zambians are also delighted. "We are tired of corruption. Now we want to live in a clean country," said Mutembo Nchito, a lawyer with the investigation.

The action was ordered by President Levy Mwanawasa – the man Mr Chiluba hand-picked to succeed him at elections last December. But fresh revelations have cast doubt on Mr Mwanawasa's bona fides.

State television reported that he had prevented his, wife, Maureen, from appearing before a parliamentary committee to explain how she funds her charitable work. Mrs Mwanawasa has been touring impoverished areas where her husband's popularity is low, handing out food and medicine. According to some reports, she spent £100,000 in one week.

The revelation is seen as a blemish on Mr Mwanawasa, a lawyer who has otherwise confounded expectations since coming to office.

During the election, he was taunted by the opposition as "the cabbage", a reference to alleged mental difficulties after a car accident in the 1990s, and he has since been dogged by allegations of vote rigging.

But in recent months he has silenced his critics. In parliament, he launched a blistering attack on Mr Chiluba, accusing him of pocketing $20m through a phoney arms deal and of passing $56m to friends and family via a London slush fund.

State investigators are investigating bank accounts in the Bahamas, Britain, France and Switzerland, and some heads have already rolled. A former aide and the intelligence chief are in jail, the Chief Justice has resigned and the ambassador to America has been recalled.

Mr Chiluba's personal wealth has come under intense scrutiny and, to add to his woes, his ex-wife, Vera, is suing him for $2.5bn – her share, she claims, of the wealth he amassed while in office.

Now that immunity has been lifted, arrest seems inevitable. "There will be no sacred cows," vowed Vice-President Enoch Kavindele.

Mr Chiluba has denied any wrongdoing. "I believe this is a political thing," he said.

Drought has left 40 per cent of Zambians facing starvation and a clampdown on graft is the price being asked for $1.3bn in aid from the World Bank and Western donors.