Malawi Police invade Jessie Kabwila’s house

Tom Sangala February 22, 2016

309 1 minute read

Seven police officers, in two vehicles, Sunday morning stormed the residence of Malawi Congress Party (MCP) Publicity Secretary Jessie Kabwila where they wanted to arrest her for treason, The Daily Times has established.

The police also arrested another MCP official and businessman, Ulemu Msungama, and were hunting for another MCP legislator Louis Chakhwantha. Chakhwantha is Chairperson of Legal Affairs Committee in Parliament.

MCP Deputy Secretary General Eisenhower Mkaka confirmed the developments in an interview yesterday.

“They picked Ulemu in the morning and took him to Area 30 (National Police Headquarters) but they are moving him to Lumbadzi Police holding cell now,” said Mkaka Sunday afternoon.

Msungama is also involved in another court battle challenging, results of the 2014 parliamentary election for Lilongwe North East where Democratic Progressive Party (DPP)’s Bentley Namasasu was declared a winner by 98 votes. Msungama wants the results to be nullified for alleged rigging.

Mkaka also confirmed that the police were looking for the two lawmakers including another MCP supporter, Gerald Mzaza Nkhata, who resides in the United Kingdom.

“The warrant of arrest talks about treason in connection with a WhatsApp chat the people allegedly had. But the DPP guys have tampered with the so called evidence. We shall handle this,” Mkaka said.

Kabwila’s mother, Venencia, confirmed in a separate interview that the detectives spent some time at the MP’s residence in Lilongwe before leaving after they were told that she was not around.

But National Police Deputy Spokesperson Thomeck Nyaude downplayed the reports, saying there is nothing that the police can want to arrest Kabwila for.

Said Nyaude: “As far as we are concerned, the rumours are not true. What her mother has told you is her side as her mother while on our part, it is not true. That is what I can say.”

But according to Kabwila’s mother, her daughter had left without informing her where she was going such that when the police visited the house, she could not tell them where Kabwila was.

“We don’t know where she is. We don’t know what has happened to her. Her mobile phones are out of reach and we just keep our fingers crossed that she is safe wherever she is,” said the mother.

She added: “We don’t know whether after leaving the house, the police got hold of her. They were here for about 30 minutes and asked us different questions. We couldn’t tell them where she is because we don’t know.”

Both Kabwila and Chakhwantha could not be reached on their phones by press time.