By Bethany Gabriel
It does not rain but pour for Malawi’s President Lazarus Chakwera as reliable sources reveal that his purported visit to Kenya for ‘bilateral talks’ was in fact his first international trip as the acting Minister of Energy.
Chakwera’s main purpose for visiting Kenya was to hold talks with Camel Oil (T) Ltd. The Malawi leader, in the company of the country’s Foreign Affairs Minister Eisenhower Mkaka and the Secretary to the President and Cabinet who also doubles as NOCMA’s Board Chairperson Mr Zangazanga Chikhosi, whisked away $1 million from this company to facilitate their future oil business with the landlocked southern African country.
‘Lake Oil Dubai Connections’
Tanzanian-based Lake Oil Company, which earlier this year was dubiously awarded oil contracts in Malawi by the country’s national oil company under special instructions from Foreign Affairs Minister and NOCMA’s Board, also featured in this ‘oil trip’.
President Chakwera and his two top officials proceeded to Dubai after Kenya and on the other side of the table were Lake Oil Company officials and their Dubai links. Extended oil supply was on the agenda. Malawi’s head of state also went out of this meeting a million dollar richer from the generous Dubai friends.
Malawi’s fight against corruption is taken back by several steps seeing that the country’s graft-busting agency, the ACB, have their hands tied to probe these deals. Chakwera doubles as Head of State and energy minister after Mr Newton Kambala was arrested and dropped from cabinet. Presidents are immune from prosecution in Malawi.
President Chakwera is expected to jet back into Malawi next week.
