Synod snubs Kachali over anti-JB Pastoral Letter

Vice President Khumbo Kachali has allegedly failed to influence and secure a unanimous decision by the Church of Central Africa Presbytery (CCAP) Livingstonia Synod to condemn his snub as President Joyce Banda’s running mate in the May 20, 2014 presidential elections.

Kachali, insiders at the Synod have revealed, has been meeting individual leaders of the influential Northern Region Church to get them to agree to issue a Pastoral Letter to blast at President Banda’s decision to choose Trade Minister Sosten Gwengwe instead of him.

Kachali is a Northerner from Edingeni in Mzimba District while Gwengwe comes from Dedza in the populous Central Region.

Kachali and Banda: On transit lounge together as one, own mandate is another story,
Kachali and Banda: On transit lounge together as one, own mandate is another story,

“Kachali has been trying to have the Synod condemn President Banda purportedly for sidelining the Northern Region through his snub,” revealed a member of the Synod leadership who has been attending some of the secret meetings that the Vice President has had with some of the Synod’s clergy.

The meetings started a day after President Banda announced her running mate at Sanjika Palace in Blantyre on February 13, 2014, according to another source within the Vice President’s office.

On the previous day, February 12, President Banda had informed Kachali about her decision to choose Gwengwe over him.

“Immediately after he had been informed that he would not be the running-mate, he started phoning members of the clergy in the Livingstonia synod, requesting them about the need to meet and strategize.

“On the day the announcement was being made at Sanjika, Kachali had just arrived in the Northern Region to meet with the church leaders and some traditional chiefs,” said this source who preferred anonymity for fear of reprisals.

According to the source, Kachali has met, among others, with Reverend Levi Nyondo, the General Secretary of the Livingstonia Synod and Reverend Dr. Timothy Nyasulu, the Moderator of the Livingstonia Synod to fight his battle.

“He managed to win the heart of Reverend Nyasulu, while Reverend Nyondo ha insisted he needed more time to reflect and pray over the issue,” said the source, who travels with Kachali on many of his trips.

Apparently Nyondo is renowned for being complimentary towards President Banda dating back to her days in the political wilderness at the hands of her erstwhile boss, late President Bingu wa Mutharika.

“The innuendo-littered sermon by the Reverend Nyasulu at the memorial service for late Inkosi ya Makosi M’mbelwa IV was a culmination of the clergyman’s meeting with Kachali,” revealed the Kachali office source.

Nyondo never reverted to Kachali, which could explain his non-concerned and receptive attitude towards President Banda at the function.

The members of the clergy in the Synod who are not supportive of the idea of opposing President Banda feel that he had already vindicated her magnanimity by selecting Kachali as Vice President in 2012 when she was not compelled to do so. “How can we condemn someone to be anti-northern region simply because an individual’s personal agenda has been affected?

“The question that Kachali should be asking himself is about how many people in the Northern Region have benefitted from his Vice Presidency.

“Because what we know is that Kachali became a very enclosed person immediately he was appointed Vice President, even to some of his close relatives,” said one member of the clergy who does not support Kachali’s overtures.

“He should not compel everyone to construe his personal injury to be representative of the region because he never made everyone feel that his vice presidency was for the benefit of the whole region,” added the clergyman from Karonga.

Kachali  political rise started in 2003 when he became the UDF Treasurer General at the time the party didn’t have competing significant people to fill its senior ranks from the Northern Region. He left the UDF with President Bingu wa Mutharika in 2005 to safeguard his cabinet appointment and later became the DPP’s Second Vice President.

He was kicked out of the DPP alongside then State Vice President Banda.

When Vice President Banda formed the PP, Kachali was appointed Vice President of the party, apparently because at the time he was the one, among others, who was being perceived highly because of a recent public profile.

His political flll started when he was embroiled in Mponela bed-get scandal and also numerous link to the wrongful self-enrichment.

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