Muchinga Province: History
The creation of a province was announced by President Michael Sata in October 2011. In November 2011, the president appointed Sichone Malozo as the first Muchinga Province Minister. The parliament approved the creation of the province at some later date.
The province consisted originally of five districts. Chama District was transferred from the Eastern Province, and the Chinsali, Isoka, Mpika, and Nakonde districts were transferred from the Northern Province. In 2013, Mafinga District was created by splitting Isoka District and Shiwang'andu District was created by splitting Chinsali District, bringing the total number of districts to seven.
In 2017, President Edgar Lungu announced the creation of two districts, which were created by splitting Mpika District into three (north, east and south-west). With Mpika in the east, the two new districts are named Kanchibiya District (north of Mpika) and Lavushimanda District (south-west of Mpika; named after the Lavushi Manda National Park), bringing the total number of districts to nine.
On 17 November 2021, President Hakainde Hichilema officially declared Chama District as part of Eastern Province (no-longer part of Muchinga Province), thereby returning the district to its original province. So, Muchinga Province only has land that was previously part of the Northern Province and currently has 8 districts.