Mvula, Kasambara jail-bound, brags State House

Mtumodzi: This is government

State House Press Officer Chikumbutso Mtumodzi has been bragging that he has assured President Bingu wa Mutharika that UDF Director of Research Humphrey Mvula will be in jail come Thursday November 20. 

Mtumodzi, who is accusing Mvula of leaking to the media a virulent letter from Mutharika to former President Dr. Bakili Muluzi, is gloating at the prospect of getting Mvula into jail saying it will be an “event to end all events.”

Mtumodzi bristling with excitement said, in his own words, apart from taking Mvula, lawyer Ralph Kasambara will accompany him for an indefinite stay in prison. 

Kasambara was at one time Attorney General in Mutharika’s minority government and touted as the greatest lawyer until he found himself increasingly at odds with the Constitution, defying “orders from above” and summarily dismissed. 

Mtumodzi appears confident that police will obey his orders to arrest Mvula and the courts will as well convict him “for flouting the Official Secrets Act” although he has not shown any evidence linking the UDF director of research to the leakage of the letters.

He said “this is government,” a quote made famous by President Mutharika when he instructed former Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) director Gustav Kaliwo to arrest Muluzi in order “to teach him” against what he said was sabotaging his administration. 

“We are asking the police to investigate the matter with the assistance of legal experts to establish if indeed Mvula and Company breached the laws of this country by leaking such confidential documents through electronic mail and otherwise,” said Mtumodzi.

“We are aware that the official secrets act is intact but we leave it in the hands of the Malawi Police Service to independently investigate and research the matter,” the State House spokesman.

Mvula and his “company”, as Mtumodzi describes his quarry, have allegedly committed an offence for making public a state-prescribed strictly confidential document in form of a letter to Muluzi whose own reply has also found its way into the media. 

“What is hurting the President is that he has been made to look unwise especially considering the threats of arrest and talk of illness contained in his letter. He is not amused at all. 

“However, Mtumodzi appears to be behind the ill-considered scheme that he purportedly sold to the President and he is fighting to salvage his position amid internal criticism,” said government insiders. 

However, Mvula in an interview yesterday said what is devilish about Mtumodzi’s threat to get him locked up is that he makes him look like “some evil menace with power to do the most ungodly things.” 

“I am at loss as to who could have told the media about the letters. I really don’t know who gave them the letters,” said Mvula without a trace of emotions, claiming he only read about it in the press. 

On the contents, Mvula said the letter from the president was “not very friendly and lacked any tone of reconciliation,” contrary to what Mtumodzi asserted to the media earlier. 

“It is like hurting a child and saying don’t tell your mother,” he said.

The UDF Chief Strategist said in his reply,  Muluzi exercised restraint and observed protocol “clearly under trying conditions because the letter was opening wounds” and was “to all intents and purposes, an assault on an innocent person.” 

Mvula claimed in an earlier news statement that Mtumodzi has implicated him causing at least five of the eleven arrests that he has suffered since 2004.