Watipaso Mzungu
A senior National Governing Council (NGC) member of the Democratic Progress Party (DPP), Ken Msonda, says Malawians should stop blaming President Dr. Lazarus McCarthy Chakwera for delayed justice in corruption cases, arguing the Office of the Republican President does not mandate him to dispense justice in criminal or miscellaneous cases.
Msonda, who is also the Executive Director of the Independent Political and Good Governance Analysts Think Tank (IPSATT), advised Malawians to direct their anger to law enforcement agencies such as the Directorate of Public Prosecutions (DPP), the Attorney General (AG), Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) and the judiciary when cases are dragging in courts.
Speaking in an interview what he expects from Chakwera as he addresses the nation this even, Msonda differed with majority of Malawians who expect President Chakwera to dismiss and punish senior government officials named or implicated in the Sattar corruption scandal.
He argued that having taken the Oath of Office to do discharge his duties as guided by the Republication Constitution, the President is not supposed to act with emotions on matters of national interest.
“Malawians, the donor and bilateral community partners should not expect President Chakwera to tackle the Sattar-corruption report saga during his address to the nation today, Tuesday the 21st June, 2022, evening. Our take as Independent Political and Good Governance Analysts Think Tank is that the State President cannot act on emotions, frustrations, disgruntlement and anger the citizenry have to have the case expedited,” he said.
The IPSATT boss further observed that President Chakwera “has demonstrated political will, but is gagged by the law as enshrined in the Malawi Constitution.”
Msonda said the biggest and major obstacle delaying the Sattar case is “the tactical – deliberate – unnecessary delay by the offices of Attorney General and Director of Public Prosecutions to give consent to ACB to start the case.
“A trillion dollar question is why the delay? Malawians are tempted to believe and speculations are very high in our midst that the two office of the Attorney General and Director of Public Prosecution possibly know something Malawians don’t know; hence, its reluctance to give consent to the Director General of ACB Martha Chizuma,” he said.
