Ex-IG George Kainja fights back
By Mandy Pondani & Rebecca Chimjeka:
Former Inspector General of Police George Kainja is challenging his arrest by the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) on corruption allegations.
Kainja has applied for a judicial review of the ACB’s decision to arrest him based on information obtained by a foreign body, the British National Crime Agency.
In June, President Lazarus Chakwera sacked Kainja after he was named in a report of the ACB over alleged corrupt activities of UK-based Zuneth Sattar.
In his application, Kainja claims that the arrest was not sanctioned by Attorney General Thabo Chakaka Nyirenda as required by law.
Kainja’s lawyer Gift Nankhuni told Malawi News on Thursday that they are applying for a stay of the ACB’s decision to arrest and prosecute Kainja.
“We made the application and the case comes before Justice Kenyatta Nyirenda on September 8, 2022,” he said.
Kainja is building his case on another case in which Sattar’s agent, Ashok Nair, challenged the ACB’s arrest.
In one of his orders on the Nair case, Justice Frank Kapanda hinted that the ACB has to explain its actions.
“The major issue in these proceedings is whether the respondents are acting illegally and therefore attracting the intervention of the court by way of judicial review on grounds of illegality,” read Kainja’s skeleton arguments in part.
Apart from the ACB, the legal action has also been commenced against the Attorney General and Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP).
ACB Director General Martha Chizuma confirmed receiving the application. She however said “everything the bureau does is within the confines of the law”.
“We have received the application and we will oppose it,” she said.
DPP Kayuni also confirmed to have been received the lawsuit.
AG Nyirenda Friday said he will be going through the documents served on his office by Kainja’s lawyers for appropriate responses and action.
“I have just received the documents and I will respond to them at an appropriate time,” Nyirenda said.
The ACB arrested Kainja on June 23, 2022 on suspicion that he received an advantage from Sattar on account of influencing a procurement contract reference number MPS/SB/16/04/2021 to supply 350,000 food ration packs.
The packs, according to ACB, were worth about $7.9 million.
The investigations conducted by the bureau established that Kainja solicited an advantage in form of a vehicle and money amounting to $8,000 from the Malawian-born British businessman for influencing the award of the contract to supply the food ration packs to the police service.
The revelations were detailed in a report which the ACB submitted to Chakwera in May, 2022.
Kainja is on bail.
