Mutharika orders investigation into market fire

President Peter Mutharika has ordered an investigation into the cause of fire that gutted Lilongwe main market in Old Town a week ago, a senior government official has said.

Fire displaced traders
Fire displaced traders

Kondwani Nankhumwa, minister of local government and rural development  said this on Friday when he received a cheque of K12 million from the Chinese community to fund the reconstruction of the market.

Nankhumwa said the seven member team will also  investigate the response of the fire brigade.

“We want to establish what really happened, why the fire fighters came late, is true they did not have enough fuel and fire fighting water, what was the condition of their equipment,” said Nankhumwa.

He said the investigations would take a week.

The minister said the investigators have already started their work.

It is still not known how much has been lost in the early morning inferno but market merchants have already started constructing stalls in the market.

But the Malawi Institute of Physical Planners has condemned the reconstruction of the stalls by the merchants, saying they were supposed to move away and give the Lilongwe City Council space to plan carefully for the new market.

Vice president of th Institute Gilbert Chilinda says the stalls constructed by the people are of low quality and prone to another fire.

However, the merchants say they are constructing the stalls with close supervision of council officials and ruled out moving out.

 

 

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True Patriot
True Patriot
7 years ago

‘The president has ordered an investigation into the market fire ‘. This is indeed Malawi! The poorest country in the whole world! The most directionless country in the whole world! The highest ‘ misled ‘ country in the whole world! Didn’t we argue here two weeks ago how the president’s commendation of the fire fighters was so premature and incorrect given that he was not on the ground and that there hadn’t been investigations to establish the cause of the fire and to competently appraise the response of various stakeholders to the accident? For interest’s sake, what becomes of his… Read more »

Achimidzimidzi
Achimidzimidzi
7 years ago

Kondwani Nankhumwa is real quick. Just under two weeks he has received K12m to reconstruct the market yet market merchants are constructing their own stalls. Guess where this K12m will go. After all assessments he will go and some more.

About fire fighters, do not waste our time, you people in government are not responsible
Please just sit down

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