Malawi24 exclusive: Dead MCP MP had a fight with dep. Speaker, cabinet ministers on Friday

…he had threatened to expose their corruption

Malawi24 can exclusively report that opposition Malawi Congress Party Member of Parliament for Mchinji West Billy Kanjira Banda who collapsed on Sunday 13 March and was later pronounced dead at hospital had a bitter fight with deputy speaker of Parliament Esther Mcheka Chilenje and cabinet members. That was on Friday.

Kanjira on Friday stood on a point of order to allege that cabinet ministers were going to pocket money in excess of millions once the bill to the office of President and Cabinet was passed. He was commenting after Kamlepo Kalua had made the allegations.

“It was Kamlepo who had started the allegation that ministers were pocketing money illegally. He was later challenged by leader of the house Francis Kasaira who asked Kalua to provide evidence. When Kalua took his seat after failing to provide the evidence, Kanjira rose on a point of order to keep commenting on the issue. He was stopped by the deputy speaker but he maintained that he wanted to talk as he had the evidence that Kalua was lacking,” said Malawi24’s political analyst Mike Kangwele.

Malawi24 understands that Kanjira insisted that cabinet ministers were going to pocket MK50 million each once the vote was passed. When he was asked for evidence, he claimed that he had it. However, when the deputy speaker ordered him to bring the evidence on Monday 14 March, the fight took another turn and started attacking the speaker.

“Kanjira and Mcheka Chilenje were involved in a better argument which saw him get expelled from Parliament. The deputy speaker was insisting that he provides evidence and he challenged that he cannot provide it although he had earlier said that he had the evidence, this created trouble with the two and the speaker later used her powers to kick him out of the house,” said our analyst.

For his remarks, the MP was met with boos and interruptions from cabinet ministers who kept insisting that he sits down as he never had a case to make. However Kanjira had insisted that he knew of their corruption. He even challenged that he could tell who had pocketed MK50 million in the previous month.

When the fight however took a wrong turn and became a debacle between him and the speaker, he was kicked out. He left the house expecting to appear in the house on Monday most likely with the evidence that DPP cabinet ministers are involved in corruption.

He collapsed in Church on Sunday and rushed to the hospital where he was pronounced dead.

However, a Whatsapp DPP group was once caught pants down discussing how to punish critic Blessings Chinsinga through the use of magic. Members of the group had discussed that they could silence Chinsinga in the same way they silenced one upon a time noisy activist Undule Mwakasungula who suffered a life threatening illness after being involved in serious fights with the DPP leadership.