The youthful and energetic Kokoliliko
group has continued its efforts in sensitizing people about the dangers of
Covid19. The group, a chapter of the
opposition Malawi Congress Party (MCP) has travelled in many places so far teaching the locals on the need to practice safe hygiene in order
to minimize the spread of the deadly virus
Earlier on Wednesday the group took a
long trip across a few villages in Mchinji . They had time to civic educate the
locals about Covid19. They also made a
donation whereby 30 cartons of soap was distributed for the locals to use to
wash their hands.
Kokoliliko , have in the recent weeks
focused more on coronavirus after seeing
the damage that the pandemic can do to Malawi.
A campaign called Corona Virus Awareness Campaign is currently underway. According to the statement from the group “ Covid19
is a real threat and soap is a necessity across many villages in Malawi. We would
love to have as many people access soap to wash their hands” reads the
statement.
Kokoliko soap distribution
Kokoliliko is also using this
opportunity to encourage people to register so that they can vote in the
forthcoming elections. “We are also trying to encourage people to register and vote in the next presidential elections” Malawi is due to have Presidential elections which
are facing the threat of voter apathy as well as new threats such as Covid19.
According to health authorities, Malawi
has now 23 known Covid19 cases with 2 people dead so far. Malawi Congress Party
President Dr Lazarus Chakwera has himself been to some areas to distribute
protective equipment and hand sanitizers to some health centres.
Kokoliliko relies on well-wishers and volunteers . For information on how people can get involved, the group encourages people to visit their website on WWW.KOKOLILIKO.COM
The chaotic handling of the management of Covid19 pandemic in Malawi continues to divide opinions. With government attempts to begin a 21 day lockdown facing an Injunction that was obtained by Human Rights Defenders Coalition(HRDC), the chairperson of the Defence and Security Select committee in Parliament Dr Ken Zikhale Ngoma has released a statement on his take on the issue.
In his statement Dr Zikhale has largely criticized the government on its
handling of the attempts to have a lockdown in Malawi. He has also accused the DPP regime of politicizing
a pandemic that was meant to have been handled by public health concern for all
and should have involved all stakeholders including the opposition parties. He
said he expected that the executive could set a
committee that will involve opposition just like South African President Cyril
Ramaphosa did by inviting Julius Malema from the opposition.
“Malawians expected that the Mutharika regime would be exemplary in the manner
it could handle issues of National importance. Surprisingly, the adverse is the
case where a political party with only 13 percent of support in the country is
trying to dominate the entire operations, a move that has raised eyebrows of
the 97 percent of the populations who do not respect DPP as government” reads
the statement.
Dr Ken Zikhale Ng’oma with MCP president Dr Lazarus Chakwera donating Covid19 protective equipment
Zikhale has also been critical of the government for bypassing parliament
in its dealings claiming that the executive decided to use a short cut in
handling this pandemic by declaring it as a national disaster without seeking
mandate from Parliament which is another arm of government.
Instead of involving parliament government opted for DPP royalist and
new Ministers to handle such a magnitude concern. Through them they opted for
doctors of their sympathy and started to spend resources in relation to the
Pandemic without following normal procedures and bypassing parliament that mandates
government to borrow money that will suffice to control the situation. We need
clean recording where subcommittee comprising of all quarters of Malawians,
like opposition and NGOs that are independent should produce and tell the
nation realities
Set subcommittee will ensure that and resources are accounted for and statistics published for Malawians to see for themselves the use of their donor and tax payers money” argues Zikhale
Zikhale has expressed how sad the situation is when many DPP affiliated
groups, unregistered as Private and Public Partners, have had access to
resources just because of their personal relationships side-lining those
with specialties to handle such matters
On government preparation for the lockdown, Zikhale expressed the
procedures that should have been followed “According to our constitution this
issue could have attracted what we call state of emergency to give government
power to use army and police to apply force for a lockdown
One wonders which section in the constitution they will use to engage
the army and police?.
Where will these institutions get the power to force Malawians to lock
down for 21days, will it be through a regulation from a department of health?”
Health Minister Jappie Mhango: giving his Covid19 updates
The Nkhatabay South legislator,
who is also opposition Malawi Congress Party Chief strategist has described what the government is doing as
unconstitutional as the regulation time limit for a disasters, does not exceed
7 days hence the Executive is required to call for an emergency parliament to
seek the mandate to do.
He has also questioned the government,
the strategy used is not complete to quantity application of 21days lockdown
Zikhale says he expects the president to call for an emergency
parliament to regulate Corona virus operations and procedures
He urged the government and ministry of health to look critically at measures
they are proposing for the lockdown. “ A
number of factors need to be considered
so that Malawians should be helped. , the levels of economy whether is
supportive or not, levels of poverty in the country considering the fact that Malawians
leave under a Dollar per day, their risks to malnourishment that could be
caused by not having access to balanced diet with vitamins proteins iron
and other minerals within the 21days lockdown which could result to more deaths”
He also added that other aspects of life such as spiritual, pregnant women and
those with other underlying issues such as HIV, diabetes should be considered prior to a lockdown
being implemented
A man in Chitipa, identified as Alisoni Sichula, 21, died after falling into an uncovered pit latrine near roundabout area within Chitipa Trading Centre in the early hours of Friday April 17.
Chitipa Police public relations officer, sub-inspector Gladwell Simwaka said the victim met his fate as he was going home from a drinking joint.
“On April 16, 2020, Sichula went to a beer drinking joint within Chitipa Trading Centre and on his way back home he fell into a deep pit latrine full of water which was being dug and he drowned.
“He was discovered in the morning of April 17, 2020 by people who were passing by and who subsequently informed the police,” said Simwaka.
The Police spokesperson further explained that Police officers together with medical personnel visited the scene and retrieved the body.
A Postmortem conducted at Chitipa District Hospital showed that the deceased had died due to suffocation.
Police in the district are advising community members to cover their pits to avoid such accidents and have also called on residents in the district to drink responsibly.
The deceased, Alison Sichula, hailed from Mkombanyama Village in Traditional Authority (T/A) Mwaulambia in Chitipa.
It continues to be a hard time for Malawians living in Diaspora,
especially in UK as it has been established that a third Malawian has died due
to Corona Virus.
The victim, a Manchester based Grant Maganga passed away in
the early hours of Monday morning. He was admitted at Tameside Hospital a week
ago after being diagnosed with Covid19.
Maganga was working as a Mental health Nurse in Tameside borough of Greater Manchester. Prior
to his moving to UK ,over two decades ago he
worked as a district commissioner in several districts including Lilongwe.
Details of the funeral arrangements will be announced. The UK remains one of the worst hit areas by Covid19. So far over 14000 people have died .
Two Malawians have also already succumbed to the deadly virus.
London based Best Banda and Birmingham Nurse Elsie Sazuze were the first victims.
The latest results of a primary research conducted by a British based Marketing research company has revealed that Democratic Progressive Party and Peter Mutharika have lost the trust of Malawians who identify themselves as “God fearing”.
Making the results of the survey known, lead researcher for Ipsos Political Research Inc, Dale Morgan said his organisation specialises in researching the power of a brand for marketing purposes. This time, the company worked with a local Malawian marketing agency as part of their project to do more branding research in Africa. “We look at the overall brand equity with its elements like brand loyalty, brand awareness, perceived quality and brand association” said Morgan.
Mutharika : Not being trusted by God fearing people
According to
the findings, it has been established that 90% of Malawians who regard
themselves a God fearing will not vote for Mutharika in the forthcoming elections.
The research highlights that this
response has come from a cross section of all religions “We sampled all religions and
the results have come out the same, both Muslims and Christians or even people that don’t go to church but identify themselves as God fearing are
not prepared to vote for Mutharika or DPP again” clarified Morgan
The research had
a sample of 10000 Malawians randomly sampled.
They came from different religious disciplines such as the evangelicals,
Pentecostals, Muslims, Rastafarians, Catholics and those who are religious but
have no church affiliations.
In trying to explain the findings, Dale Morgan said they have identified that DPP and Mutharika name (Brand) is so tainted in that people who regard themselves to have morals don’t want to associate with it. “These findings pick out strong elements which are against what most people who believe in God or Allah would want in a party. The Mutharika/DPP name is strongly associated with Corruption, lack of common love due to Nepotism, lies that comes from leaders of the party and the party is strongly perceived to be a party of thieves” .
DPP spokesman Dausi has laughed off at the research findings claiming that the research company did not collect the right sample “DPP is loved by all Malawians and we have a lot od religious leaders who endorses us “ defended Dausi
