MCP members of Parliament camp at Kanengo SFFRFM office

By Cathy Maulidi:

Some Malawi Congress Party (MCP) members of Parliament (MPs) Tuesday stormed Smallholder Farmers Fertiliser Revolving Fund of Malawi (SFFRFM) offices at Kanengo, where they waited for fertiliser meant for their constituents.

The legislators’ move comes barely a week after their counterparts in the Southern Region did the same over what they called “bias” in the distribution of fertiliser under the Affordable Inputs Programme (AIP).

Some of the MPs spotted at Kanengo included Lilongwe Msinja North lawmaker Bintony Kutsaira, Nkhotakota South legislator Brainax Kaise, Dowa North MP Enos Chatatanga, Lilongwe South East MP Baba Steven Malondera and MP for Dowa North and Minister of Mining Monica Chang’anamuno.

Apart from the MPs, farmers also swarmed the premises.

Two of them, namely George Kambwiri from Nambuma in Dowa District and Chipiliro Banda from Waliranji in Mchinji District, said they paid K30,000 each for two bags of fertiliser but were yet to redeem the commodities.

“We are suffering,” Banda said.

Last week, Ombudsman Grace Malera released preliminary findings of investigations into the AIP, indicating that the programme faced hiccups.