Peeved Zambian president orders monkeys out

Zambia President Rupiah Banda has ordered scores of monkeys removed from the grounds of his official residence, after one urinated on his head during a press conference, a parks official said on Tuesday.

Zambia President Rupiah Banda has ordered scores of monkeys removed from the grounds of his official residence, after one urinated on his head during a press conference, a parks official said on Tuesday.

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More than 200 monkeys live on the State House grounds, but Banda has asked the Munda Wanga Botanical Gardens to relocate most of them to its parkland outside Lusaka, the gardens’ director Bill Thomas said in a statement.

“The president recently requested to the Munda Wanga Botanic Trust to remove and relocate some of the monkeys, and so far 61 monkeys have been humanely captured and translocated to the gardens,” Thomas said.

Two months ago, one of the monkeys urinated on Banda’s jacket during a press conference, as the president was castigating the main opposition leader Michael Sata.

“Oh, it has urinated on me. I will donate it to Sata. He should have it for lunch this afternoon,” Banda joked at the time.