Chakwera arrest imminent: former Malawi president hunted over Greenbelt and Fertilizergate scandals
The arrest of a former Malawian president would be unprecedented in its scale — but so too is the corruption investigators say unfolded on his watch.
Former President Lazarus Chakwera is reportedly being pursued by authorities in connection with the K39 billion Greenbelt scandal and Fertilizergate, but his Malawi Congress Party (MCP) says it is political persecution and Malawi’s history of presidential corruption cases offers little hope of justice.
Law enforcement agencies are reportedly closing in, with the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) announcing on Facebook that Chakwera’s arrest is imminent.
The DPP has linked the pursuit to corruption allegations connected to the Greenbelt scandal and Fertilizergate, two of the most damaging financial scandals in Malawi’s recent history, which have already led to the arrest of three former cabinet ministers.
If arrested, it would send shockwaves across the country and mark one of the most consequential political moments in Malawi’s democratic history
The DPP has framed the development as a legitimate accountability exercise. Chakwera’s Malawi Congress Party (MCP) calls it a political witch-hunt. But between those two positions lies a trail of arrests, missing billions, and unanswered questions that are becoming increasingly difficult to dismiss.
Investigators are reportedly probing Chakwera’s potential knowledge of or involvement in the Greenbelt scandal, in which at least K39 billion was allegedly looted from the Greenbelt Authority between March and July 2025 through fake contracts, inflated procurement, and coordinated financial transfers. The Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) has stated that some of the stolen funds were used to finance the 2025 election campaign. It has not yet been established whether Chakwera had direct knowledge of the looting or personal involvement in the misuse of funds originally intended to address the country’s food insecurity. The money was stolen as Malawi continues to extend its begging bowl to the world for food to feed its own people.
Separately, the Chakwera administration paid hundreds of millions of kwacha to a UK-based butchery for fertiliser that was never delivered. Billions more were paid under questionable circumstances to a Romanian company called East Bridge for fertiliser yet to be delivered.
Whether Chakwera was personally aware of the looting taking place within his own administration remains a central and as yet unestablished question. The arrest of a former president will send shockwaves across the country and all eyes will be on whether Malawi’s justice system can finally deliver where it has repeatedly failed before.
Chakwera would not be joining an empty cell block. Several senior officials from his administration are already in custody. Former Minister of Finance Simplex Chithyola Banda was arrested over the Greenbelt scandal. Former Cabinet Ministers Sosten Gwengwe and Samuel Kawale were arrested in February 2026 in connection with the East Bridge scandal. Multiple Greenbelt Authority officials, including Director of Finance Linda Phiri, Procurement Manager Masautso Kamowa, and Infrastructure Development Manager Synoden Kautsi, were arrested in January. Private sector contractors linked to the schemes are also in custody.
When then Vice President Saulos Chilima was arrested by the ACB on charges of receiving kickbacks and other corruption-related offences, he publicly demanded the removal of presidential immunity — a move many commentators interpreted as a pointed suggestion that Chakwera himself was implicated, shielded only by the immunity afforded to a sitting president.
Chilima’s charges were dropped before he died in a plane crash under circumstances that continue to raise serious questions. The manner in which news of his death was announced, and the events surrounding it, have never been fully explained to the satisfaction of many Malawians.
Former President Joyce Banda also weighed in on his death, implying that mysterious deaths in forests were a recurring feature of the ruling Malawi Congress Party’s hold on power — a grave allegation that the MCP has never formally addressed.
MCP’s Response: Witch-Hunt
While the net is closing in on Chakwera, MCP has maintained throughout that the charges against its officials are politically motivated, a manufactured persecution by the DPP administration. Yet even within that narrative, cracks have appeared. In a moment that drew widespread ridicule and disbelief, MCP spokesperson Jesse Kabwila urged party supporters not to throw stones at officials being arrested, even in cases where there was compelling evidence against them, or where supporters felt officials had “eaten the loot without sharing with their colleagues within the party.”
The Muluzi Precedent or The Tit-for-Tat?
For those hoping Chakwera’s potential arrest will lead to justice, Malawi’s own recent history offers a sobering lesson. Former President Bakili Muluzi was arrested in 2006 on charges of diverting $11 million in donor funds. The case dragged on for 17 years. In May 2023, the government discontinued the case through the Director of Public Prosecutions, and the High Court freed Muluzi of all charges. Reports indicated that the decision followed a behind-the-scenes agreement in which Muluzi paid back K86 million of the K1.7 billion he was alleged to have stolen, equivalent to approximately K22 billion at today’s exchange rate. Many observers described it as a settlement, not justice.
The question Malawians are now asking is whether a Chakwera prosecution would follow the same arc — years of proceedings, political negotiations, and an eventual quiet resolution — or whether this time, the system will hold.
The picture is further complicated by what is happening on the other side of the ledger. While the current DPP administration pursues Chakwera’s allies, it has simultaneously been dropping charges against its own officials who were arrested under the Chakwera administration on corruption allegations. Critics say this raises uncomfortable questions about whether the pursuit of Chakwera and his goons is genuine accountability or tit-for-tat political payback — a pattern as old as Malawian multiparty politics itself.
The Scandals at the Centre of the Case
Greenbelt Scandal: At least K39 billion allegedly looted from the Greenbelt Authority between March and July 2025 through fake contracts and inflated procurement. Funds allegedly used to finance the 2025 MCP election campaign.
Fertilizergate: Malawi’s government paid hundreds of millions of kwacha to a UK-based butchery for fertiliser that was never delivered.
East Bridge: Billions in government funds were paid to a Romanian company, East Bridge,for fertiliser yet to be delivered.
