Mota Engil constructed a house for Nicholus Dausi, a politician who served as a cabinet minister in the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) administration.
Dausi was dragged to court by his ex-wife Veronica Nyirenda over matrimonial property which include five houses owned by the couple. Court documents show that the woman revealed that Mota Engil constructed a house for Dausi at Kunenekude in Mwanza.
“On the issue of the house at Kunenekude in Mwanza, the Applicant (Nyirenda) has been so consistent with her evidence. She went further to submit in her last submission, that the house in Kunenekude was constructed by Mota Engil. The house was given to the family as a gift after it was constructed by Mota Engil,” reads part of the ruling Principal Resident Magistrate Kandulu in Mzuzu.
According to the ruling, Nyirenda submitted that she did not want to testify this in open court in order to protect reputation being a father to her children but was forced to do so after Dausi decided to “furnish the court with lies”.
Dausi in his submission alleged that the Kunenekude house belongs to his son Mwai Dausi. He claimed that Mwai had been sending him money to construct the said house.
“He has not provided any bank transfer slips, or bank statement or affidavit sworn by Mwai Dausi as evidence to prove that his son used to send him money to construct the said kunenekude’s house. In the absence of the documentary evidence to counter the evidence of the Applicant, it is my finding that the Kunenekude house is a matrimonial property subject to distribution by the court,” reads part of the ruling.
The ruling was delivered on 18 January in the case in which Dausi’s ex-wife applied for the distribution of matrimonial property acquired during their 12-year marriage.
Dausi served as a deputy minister during the DPP administration led by former President Bingu wa Mutharika and also served as a Minister of Homeland Security in the Peter Mutharika led DPP administration.
Mota Engil enjoyed government construction contracts during the Democratic Progressive Party regime.
One of its recent projects in Malawi is the Area 18 Interchange where there have been claims that cost was inflated from about K7 billion to K16 billion.
