On Thursday, President Lazarus Chakwera appointed UTM vice-president Michael Usi as the country’s second in command following a vacancy created by the death of Saulos Chilima in a plane crash that occurred on June 10.
It was largely expected that Chakwera would settle for Usi, or any other senior official in UTM, a party that has been a main partner in the Tonse Alliance.
To placate the hearts of grieving UTM supporters who have gone berserk conjuring all manner of conspiracy theories related to their leader’s tragic death, the next veep was supposed to come from their camp.
But has he?
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From the day the news got confirmed that Chilima and eight others had perished in the Malawi Defence Force plane crash, some people, particularly UTM fans, instantly became aviation and search and rescue experts.
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They drew and have been drawing thousands of concepts about what might have caused the unfortunate incident and who could be responsible.
Their leaders did not even make matters better. They also came with some irrational accounts which only made the atmosphere tenser.
Perhaps, having realised the folly in their sentiments, they organised an impromptu press meeting where they appealed to their supporters to remain calm as the country mourns Chilima.
By that time, a lot of damage had already been caused, including a fracas that ended up claiming lives of four people in Ntcheu.
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And Chakwera’s men are making things worse now.
After the President announced that whoever was grieving must be allowed to grieve in whatever manner they felt.
He even directed that no arrests would be made because ‘namalira sitimamutseka pakamwa’ (you do not gag the bereaved).
A few days later, his overzealous police officers are all over detaining whoever grieved in ways they now deem criminal.
Well, they could just be doing their job, but at the end, they are stretching the healing process and heightening the anger that is in some people over the loss of their beloved leader.
In moments like what Malawi is going through, it is foolhardy for someone to ignore the fact that the best way of forging ahead with unity is by letting bygones be bygones.
It is obvious that some people have been terribly hurt by sentiments of loose cannons that have done all they could to inform the world that it might just be true that Malawi has the lowest IQ levels in the world.
There are politicians with power who might be pushing the police to go after their purported nemeses.
Otherwise, with Chakwera having decreed that no one should be hounded for grieving stupidly in this difficult time, the police can only ignore that after being told so by some powerful individuals.
The arrest that are happening are only making the government unpopular, even if they really border on maintaining the rule of law. After all, mercy is often greater than justice.
In fact, the choice of Usi itself as vice-president is only an academic activity in terms of maintaining the Tonse Alliance spirit, for his own party’s members, including senior ones, have in recent days starkly ostracised him.
He has been conspicuous by his absence in several UTM meetings and that compelled some of his party’s members to assume he no longer stuck to its ideals.
During Chilima’s funeral, it was other UTM officials, led by Secretary General Patricia Kaliati, who mostly addressed the party’s members and the general public about several issues.
Usi did not take crucial roles during important meetings.
He was Chilima’s deputy in the party and was supposed to be its face during the funeral.
It could not be that he was so sad that he could not stand before a microphone, for, had that been the case, Kaliati and others who addressed journalists would have said they had been tasked to do that by their vice-president.
Now, Usi has the daunting task of either uniting UTM and becoming its face post- Chilima. Of course, the late vice-president himself was less tangled in party affairs, but that is not the focus of this entry.
Usi has the scary task of showing UTM members that he remains their leader—a point which must have been taken into consideration when appointing him Malawi’s vice-president.
Or he can choose to divest himself of the party and go full throttle with what some people have been insinuating all along, that he actually left the party and silently moved into Malawi Congress Party (MCP).
Should that become apparent, MCP might become the biggest loser because UTM would just augment their claims, that Chakwera has not picked any of theirs for Malawi’s second most important seat.
And the march towards the September 2025 elections will obviously be an interesting one.
