The Youth and Society-YAS has accused President Lazarus Chakwera of interfering in the operations of governance institutions thereby crippling the completion of corruption cases involving some of his top officials.
Charles Kajoloweka, Executive Director of YAS has claimed that he has it on authority that some corruption cases involving government and top Malawi Congress Party officials are delaying due to Chakwera’s interference in the operations of some state governance institutions.
“We have the 750 Million Kwacha AIP procurement botched deal, the MCP secretary general questionable wealth accumulation and the Kapondamgaga involvement in the Sattar corruption cases as good examples of such cases whose investigations were done and concluded but are failing to take a step further due to the president’s connection to the people involved in the said cases” Kajoloweka said.
While being non-committal to explain how exactly the president is interfering in the said cases, Kajoloweka only said at an appropriate time he will present details of how the president’s connection to the people involved in such cases is stifling the prosecution and completion of the same.
Kajoloweka said “Political interference is in many ways and it is very systematic such that the public may not know that there is some interference, and we are speaking from a very well-informed position and we will be sharing such cases along the way.”
Speaking to MIJ Online, Kajoloweka has also questioned the manner in which the Director of Public Prosecution is conducting himself saying the DPP has discontinued some corruption cases without providing sensible grounds for the discontinuation.
According to Kajoloweka, the president’s interference in the operations of state governance and law enforcement agencies and the questionable of conduct of the DPP are a deterrent to the war against corruption.
Currently Malawi is regarded among the most corrupt nations in the world and is ranked at position 110 out of 180 countries according to the 2022 Corruption Perception Index-CPI.
Meanwhile, Minister of information and digitalization has dismissed the claims.
Moses Kunkuyu brushed off the claims saying law enforcement agencies like the ACB and others are operating independently from any political interference.
He says government has trust in the manner in which ACB is operating.
