By Our Reporter
Local governance organisation, Centre for Democracy and Economic Development Initiative – CDEDI has accused President Lazarus Chakwera of turning the Kamuzu Day commemoration into an Malawi Congress Party -MCP campaign rally.
On May 14th each year, Malawi celebrates Kamuzu Day and this year, the day was commemorated on Tuesday with a colorful event that took place at the Kamuzu Stadium in Blantyre, which reportedly cost the taxpayer MK90 million.
Speaking on Thursday during a press briefing, Executive Director for CDEDI Sylvester Namiwa said the hijacking of the commemoration diluted the importance of remembering the country’s first post-independence leader, the late Dr. Hastings Kamuzu Banda.
“The MCP lavish spending in the pretext of remembering Kamuzu was a cause that did not augur well with the state of affairs in the country. To be precise, it was a needless luxury.” He said
Namiwa therefore said CDEDI challenges President Chakwera and his MCP to refund Treasury the public money used for the commemoration.
“By any measure and standard that event was a political platform not befitting a State event that could foster unity among Malawians.” Added Namiwa
CDEDI director noted that there was no need to spend public money for politicking when the poor majority of this country are struggling to survive while at the same time the public debt has ballooned to unprecedented levels, staggering at MK13 trillion.
“In fact, it was a lost opportunity by President Chakwera to unite Malawians when he decided to join the bandwagon of political bickering, instead of accounting for his campaign promises, especially now that the country is heading towards the next General Election with nothing worth writing home about as regards Tonse Alliance’s promises for a better Malawi.” Said Namiwa
CDEDI has further appealed to the Malawi Electoral Commission (MEC) to be on the alert ahead of September 16 2025, to ensure a level playing field, as well as transparency and accountability on political financing in a bid to save public funds from abuse by the party in government.
