And indeed, why should Wise One from the East, rest?
Introduction:
Issa Njaunju was gruesomely murdered. His body was found buried somewhere in Lilongwe, the capital city of Malawi, few kilometres from Kamuzu Palace, the official residence of Malawi President where the current tenant is Pres Professor Arthur Peter Mutharika.
His car was found at Mtandire, a high density area in Area 49 but in ashes.
Malawi mobile operators, using their hightech, located the phone of Issa Njaunju in or around Falls Estate.
It is over a year now, Njaunju is gone and the assailants of his gruesome murder remain scot-free and they are out there living a lavishing life while his relatives and children are not sure if someday, truth will come out of what exactly killed their father, husband, son and relative.
Today, Malawians and all those keen to know exactly what happened with Njaunju will have all the answers and know the truth of what really happened.
FACT BOX:
As per the Daily Times: Njauju went missing on July 2, 2015 before his body was discovered two days later behind Presidential Villas in Lilongwe. The body had bullet wounds on the neck and stomach, according to postmortem results.His official vehicle, a Toyota Hilux double cabin, was later found burnt along Ntandile Road within the city.
The alleged motive:
Investigations which this Whistleblower has carried out over a period of one year now has established that Anti- Corruption Bureau received over 20 letters from different sources on how this State House staffer and President Mutharika long time private bodyguard, Norman Paulos Chisale, who had been at State House for less than a year and by the time of Njaunju murder, had accumulated a lot of wealth.
The dossier among other things, wanted Mutharika to know that Norman Paulos Chisale owned, from inexplicable sources and means, among other things, the following assets: a Hummer H3 silver , a Toyota Fortuner 2014 model black , a Toyota V8 metallic grayish, a Red coupe, Toyota quantum minibuses (5), White Mercedes Benz C 200, Toyota D4D (5), White Ford Ranger Sport, Trucks (4), Passenger buses (3), Nissan Tilda latio (2), Toyota Collora (previously owned by Mutharika Chef), Audi A6L, a mansion in BCA, a plot in Area 6, a mansion in Area 3 plus a lodge in Mangochi.
Investigations revealed that, Paulos Norman Chisale who works as Director of Security for Mutharika, by the time Njaunju was murdered was a P3 (Assistant Director) and his salary was less than MK 600,000 per month.
The cars alone which Paulos Chisale bought between 2014 to 2015 ,before Njaunju was killed can be valued at over MK 320 million, when the annual net salary of Chisale was less than MK 10 million at the same period .
Even including the foreign travels which Mutharika had at that particular time, Norman Paulos Chisale could not afford to buy those 25 state-of-the-art cars he owns.
The dossier also had information which implicated Mutharika’s body guard in a questionable procurement of a second hand presidential motor home, which was bought twice its actual price from South Africa.
Dossier landed in wrong hands?
This whistleblower has overwhelming evidence that the dossier from ACB did not reach President Mutharika. The dossier ended in the hands of security officer, Superintendent Dingani Njolomole –former Director of operations for Mulanje Police Station.
The dossier from ACB instead of landing in Mutharika’s land, ended in the hands of Paulos Norman Chisale who was the culprit.Supt Dingani Njolomole is reported to be loyal to Norman Paulos Chisale at State House and was in-charge of waiting room, which examines confidential documents before President Mutharika sees them.
The theory of mistaken identity:
After realizing what kind of trouble Norman Paulos Chisale was in, he engaged his accomplices at ACB and Malawi Police service to go after who was behind the dossier which sent to Mutharika.
Mutharika security man Chisale was told that it must have been Lucas Kondowe who heads ACB and is in the position to speak to Mutharika than other officers.
A man-hunt for Kondowe was launched by Chisale boys who were led by his inlaw at Malawi Police, who was later arrested in connection to the murder of Njaunju but released.
Unfortunately, those who were sent for the operation did not know both Njaunju and Kondowe and all they had to use as their lead was only the officer car which Njaunju was driving on that particular day.
Their mission was carried out, as far as they thought, with “success” believing they had killed Kondowe when in fact, they had killed the wrong person.
Njaunju died just like that.
Events after Njauju was murdered:
1. One Million Kwacha Reward was offered, allegedly instigated by Chisale, for information leading to the arrest of Njauju’s killers:
Just after Issa Njaunju was murdered and his body discovered, an offer of MK 1 million was made that those with information, which could lead to the arrest of Njaunju murder would get.
The idea was reportedly instigated by Chisale who is Mutharika personal body guard. Why? To trap Those who knew the truth about Njaunju’s murder.
If anyone came up with information which was accurate and could lead in tracing Chisale who in this case is behind the murder of Njaunju, they were to be killed right away.
2. Njaunju’s phone recovered:
An in-law to mafia Norman Chisale, i.e. a brother to Chisale’s wife, was arrested. It transpired that the phone which Njaunju was using before his death was sold to a Frank John and that the seller was Chisale’ s in-law, a police officer based in Lilongwe.
To attract attention, this police officer was bragging at a drinking joint that he knew who was behind the killing of Njaunju. Some people tipped the police and hence the arrest. Only to be released later by the police which Chisale controls through his friend, Duncan Mwapasa- the Deputy IG administration.
3. Police Investigations – round one:
The police carried out its investigations and they know that Chisale is the man who killed Njaunju because of the ACB dossier.
Chisale cannot be touched because the police officers are afraid that they may lose life if the act on him for two reasons:
a) Chisale is a powerful man who works with the state president as his Director of security and managing all the accounts of the president, he is taken as someone with authority.
b) Deputy Commissioner of Police Duncan Mwapasa and Chisale are friends. There is no way Mwapasa can allow Chisale to be arrested because they are like brothers.
4. Politics around the Investigations – Wise One from the East addition
Other than the Mwanza murders, the unsolved death of Dr Kalonga Stambuli, and the botched enquiry on Robert Chasowa’s murder; I cannot recall any other highly publicised murders whose investigations have taken so long without bearing fruit.
My sources (not this whistleblower) have it that the powers that be are not keen to see Issa Njauju’s murder solved.
Evidence to this effect is that when the initial team that was investigating the murder, got too close to the truth; the case was taken off its hands and the team dissolved for no apparent reason.
Another team was constituted and this team, knowing that there will be no reward for solving this murder, only victimisation, is not motivated to pursue the many leads uncovered by the initial team.
Coming to the leadership, in high and low places in government, no-one wants to remember Issa Njauju.
December 17, 2015 Malawi joined the international community commemorating the International Anti-Corruption day, which falls on 9 December. No high level speaker made mention of Issa Njauju’s murder in the very same year.
Not even a second of silence was observed in Issa Njauju’s honour President Arthur Peter Mutharika, Hon Tembenu – the Minister of Justice, and the Director General of the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) among other dignitaries. Would they deny the fact that they had expressly instructed their speech-writers to delete all and any references to Issa Njauju’s murder?
Why, I ask, were you afraid to pay tribute to a clear victim of corruption?
Epilogue:
I don’t know about you colleagues, I am getting the impression your hearts are made of stones. But speaking for myself, I cannot rest because no matter how many times I tell Issa Njauju to “rest in peace”, he is not resting in peace.
His soul keeps crying for Justice.
*The article was first published on here. Views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not reflect those of Malawi24.
