Despite Zambia providing more than sufficient proof on the need to cull the elephants as a result of the increased human-animal conflict, the governments at the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) have rejected the proposal.
Obviously, this is the work of the powerful conservation groups and other animal rights organisations whose decisions are sometimes based on insufficient information and are not alive to the situation on the ground.
The reality is that there has been an increase in animal-human conflict, more especially elephants that are marauding food crops and attacking human beings.
As Ms Namugala stressed , many people have been killed by elephants and even now, some children are not going to school because they are afraid of encountering elephants along the way.
Before making the proposals, experts were called to Zambia to assess the situation and they recommended that Zambia be downgraded to a category, which can be allowed to offload some of the ivory stockpiles and elephants.
This was because the elephants' population has grown to more than 27,000 and there was a need to crop the beasts to manageable levels and reduce human-animal conflict.
Apart from that, it was made clear that the proceeds from the sale would go towards conservation and development of communities in areas such as game parks.
Obviously, all this fell on deaf ears and CITES chose to listen to so called authorities on rhino and ivory trade and conservationists who clearly have no regard for human life.
It is puzzling that the proposal was thrown out when what Zambia and Tanzania were asking was not a permanent lifting of the ban but merely a permit that would help in managing the elephant population.
It is small wonder that observers are increasingly questioning the manner in which international treaties and conventions are enforced and whether all member-states are given fair treatment.
In this regard, we agree that Zambia's sovereignty has not been respected and CITES will do well to rethink its decision.