Kamuzu Day of Chaos! MCP politicise Kamuzu Day

…Government accused of barring former Malawi president from official Kamuzu Day event

…Police fire teargas at supporters as Chakwera is blocked from laying wreath at Kamuzu Mausoleum

The Malawi Congress Party (MCP) and its leadership have been accused of politicising Kamuzu Day after the party turned a national holiday into a political procession, complete with party colours, a parallel rally and speeches in which both the party president and secretary general spoke about themselves rather than the country’s founding president.

The accusations came as the Malawi Police in Lilongwe fired teargas at MCP supporters who were heading to the Kamuzu Banda Mausoleum alongside party president and former president Lazarus Chakwera, who had planned to lay a wreath in honour of Kamuzu on the national holiday.

Police mounted two roadblocks along the route Chakwera was expected to take to the mausoleum — one near the Civic Offices and another at the entrance to the Bingu International Convention Centre, just before the mausoleum.

The dramatic scenes followed a decision by the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) led government to effectively exclude Chakwera and MCP from the official Kamuzu Day commemoration. MCP secretary general Richard Chimwendo Banda said the party boycotted the government ceremony after being told that supporters should not wear Kamuzu attire and that Chakwera should not attend.

“You did not say you wanted to be guest of honour at the event. You did not ask for a special place. You only asked me to inform government that you always attend the event, but when I communicated with them, they said you should not be part of the event,” Chimwendo Banda, sounding like Mark Antony, said at the MCP’s parallel commemoration held at the party’s headquarters in Lilongwe.

Chimwendo Banda argued that barring Chakwera from the official event was unreasonable given that the former Malawi president was instrumental in ensuring the country commemorates Kamuzu Day. He also issued a defiant warning to the DPP — notably speaking in third person, which critics say highlights a culture of self-importance within the party’s leadership.

“You can arrest Chimwendo, you can arrest Chithyola, you can arrest Kunkuyu, you can arrest Mumba, you can arrest Kabwila, you can even arrest Chakwera, but you can never take Malawi Congress Party away from Malawians,” he said, while listing individuals accused of looting more than K30 billion of public funds through the Greenbelt Authority and spearheading other controversial deals, including the alleged procurement of fertiliser from a British butchery and the handing of billions to East Bridge on the pretext that the company was using its own money to buy tobacco.

Chakwera, speaking at the MCP event before attempting to march to the mausoleum, also spoke in third person while, ironically, speaking against the culture of intimidation and self-importance in Malawian politics.

“If there was a president who was insulted by people, including on social media, then it’s Chakwera. But I made sure that laws that suppressed people’s freedoms were removed,” he said — while not evoking memories of several journalists, including Malawi24’s publishing editor and Platform for Investigative Journalism (PIJ) Malawi reporter, Gregory Gondwe, who were arrested under his administration for exposing corruption during his tenure, a fact that somewhat undermined the credibility of his speech. Chakwera had also suspended Anti-Corruption Bureau Director Martha Chizuma for criticising the president over a lacklustre approach in the fight against corruption.

Chizuma was hounded at night in her pyjamas like a hardcore criminal — a moment that became one of the defining images of what critics described as the Chakwera administration’s intolerance of accountability and to nozle dissent views. His speech about suppression on Wednesday rang hollow against that backdrop.

Whether the decision to bar Chakwera from the official event was justified or not, MCP’s response — party colours, a parallel rally, party speeches and a defiant address — handed the DPP a gift by making it easy to argue that MCP was less interested in Kamuzu and more interested in a show of political force on a day that belongs to all Malawians.

Adding to the optics, the MCP rally was held on a podium decorated with Chakwera’s face rather than Kamuzu’s. There was hardly a person in attendance had a regalia bearing Kamuzu Banda’s image — every party attire on display carried Chakwera’s face. For anyone who wandered in without context, you would be excused for thinking this was Chakwera Day.

The Malawi government and police are yet to issue a public statement on why Chakwera was barred from the official commemoration or why teargas was fired at supporters.