Game of thrones: Kalenga fights on

Konis Eino Kalenga is threatening to take urban and rural development minister Peya Mushelenga and Oshana governor Elia Irimari to court, claiming they were biased in favour of Fillemon Shuumbwa Nangolo, who government has backed as the next Ondonga king.Mushelenga announced on Monday that government had recognised Nangolo as the designated king, ahead of Kalenga, who had also laid claim to the throne.Both Nangolo and Kalenga applied to the ministry to be designated as the successor to the late Omukwaniilwa Immanuel Kauluma Elifas, who died in March.Mushelenga, however, said Kalenga's application did not pass the verification process.Kalenga, through his lawyer Elia Shikongo from Shikongo Law Chambers, contends that Mushelenga’s decision is unlawful and invalid.He is accusing Mushelenga and Irimari of bias in terms of the verification process and says the minister was provided the wrong information by the governor.Kalenga also said they did not get any response from Mushelenga.“Our instructions are that you were not in a position to act fairly and reasonably in the fulfilment of your administrative function in that you were not furnished with the adequate information to make an informed decision as to which application to approve. We refer specifically to the failure by the governor of Oshana to verify the application submitted in respect of Mr Kalenga,” Shikongo said in a letter to Mushelenga.“Our instructions are further that due to the failure by the governor to duly verify the application of Kalenga as contemplated in regulation 2, and forward same to you, you based your decision on information which was incomplete and inadequate. We record that you were fully appraised of the governor’s failure in our letter of 30 April already.”Both applications were done through Irimari, who did the preliminary verifications and made the submissions to Mushelenga.Irimari told Namibian Sun his duty in the process was only to verify if they (Nangolo and Kalenga) had met the basic requirements.“My role was just to verify whether the applications have met all the requirements, how many people are in Ondonga, whether the signatures are authentic and of right people, how many gazetted leaders there are, how far the legal battle is and that is all I did,” said Irimari. Kalenga is now calling on Mushelenga to review his decision.“You are accordingly required to furnish us a written assurance before the close of business tomorrow that your unlawful and invalid decision to approve the application in respect of Nangolo will not be implemented and have no force or effect until the finalisation of the review application.“Should we not receive the written assurance as requested, we hold instruction to bring the review application on an urgent basis, together with an urgent interdict to interdict the implementation of your decision, in which case we shall seek a cost order against you as well as the governor of Oshana,” threatened Shikongo.Acting chairperson of the Ondonga Traditional Authority, Vilho Kamanya, who is in Nangolo's faction, told Namibian Sun Mushelenga’s decision to recognise Nangolo as the 19th Ondonga king means the kingship battle has ended.ILENI NANDJATO

Game of thrones: Kalenga fights on

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Namibian Sun 2026-09-25

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Game of thrones: Kalenga fights on

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Namibian Sun 2026-09-25

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