Malawi’s main opposition party, the United Democratic Front (UDF), has called on President Bingu Wa Mutharika’s government to investigate former attorney general Ralph Kasambara on office abuse allegations. Mr. Kasambara’s was recently forced out of office. Kasambara is believed to have engineered the resignation of Vice President Cassim Chilumpha.
The UDF’s General Secretary Sam Mpasu discussed the issue with Voice of America reporter Peter Clottey. He said there should be an investigation for two main reasons. “One is that president Mutharika himself has told the world that he is fighting against corruption. The second reason is that he has been arresting most of us in the UDF on trumped up charges of corruption. And we thought that he, if he’s serious about fighting corruption he would really investigate the many things that have come up in the press about the attorney general.”
Mpasu said that if the government refuses to examine the situation ”…Doctor Mutharika, as president of this country would have disgraced himself because he would have not done what he has been preaching to be doing.”
Information Minister Patricia Kaliati, does not believe an investigation should be conducted. She said, ”Who are they to ask the investigation for Kasambara and why today, why this time, where were they? Because they were supposed to ask not the government per sey but the anti-corruption bureau because we are not the ones who investigate people. Why can’t they ask them the anti-corruption bureau to investigate Kasambara than asking government, is it a personal issue? Because if he is being removed from the office it’s just a normal exercise and the blessings of one to be appointed or be removed is in the hands of the state President Doctor Bingu Wa Mutharika. So it’s really unfair to ask government to come forward and investigate him instead of asking the anti-corruption bureau.”
The information minister also said, ”Are they trying to tell me now that UDF is a watchdog, is an NGO? We were even investigating Mwawawa (a former minister) when he was in government, why didn’t they come forward to say investigate Kasambara whiles he was in government?”
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