Kelvin Sentala, a lawyer and acquaintance of the late Vice President Saulos Chilima, has told the parliamentary committee that the search for the plane that killed the late Vice President Saulos Chilima and eight others was disorganised.
Sentala testified before the Ad-Hoc Parliamentary Committee investigating the Chikangawa crash that the search lacked systematic methods.
He said they had to use phone torches and were just relying on asking communities if they had seen the plane or not.
He added that there was also a lack of responsibility because those involved were merely following instead of leading the search.
He told the committee that on 10 June 2024 the weather in Chikangawa was cloudy, foggy and visibility was poor and he said he was on the road at the time and had to drive at 20km per hour due to the conditions.
However, he said he is not sure if the plane experienced the same weather.
Sentala further testified that at 9: 30 PM they were ordered to stop the search by a person he believed was one of the police officer, but he could not identify the individual because of the large crowd present.
“The search was in the hands of the government and for us we didnt had mechanism of searching, we were just following after being told that we should stop searching we had nothing to do but to obey,” he said.
When asked about the number of security personnel involved, Sentala said there were fewer than 20 police officers and a small contingent of army officers.
On his relationship with the late Vice President, Sentala said he never heard Chilima talking much about death and never noticed anything troubling in his bearing.
He also told the committee that a day before the crash he was invited by the late Vice President at his residence, where they discussed several topics including church, his trip to South Korea and South Africa as well as to attend the late Ralph Kasambala’s funeral the following day.
Sentala said the Vice President’s state of mind appeared normal at the time.
