DPP’s Kasaila slurs at MCP’s Mia, says Lower Shire people are not ‘masikini’

Spokesman of the governing Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Francis Kasaila has accused  the media for portraying people in the Lower Shire as ‘masikini’ [beggars] to Malawi Congress Party (MCP) politician and business tycoon Sidick Mia .

He made the remarks Wednesday in Lilongwe during a news conference in which minister of information Nicholas Dausi was clarifying on the alleged interference of the DPP in the forthcoming by-elections in Nsanje Lalanje.

According to Kasaila, people of Chikwawa and Nsanje eat from their sweat and not from Mia’s handouts.

“We, people of lower shire are not happy with you the media. You are disseminating information that we are beggars to Mia while we are not. Who is Mia to us? Go and ask the civil servants in Chikwawa, they will tell you who he is,” he added.

He demanded respect for the people of Nsanje and Chikhwawa saying people from the areas are not fools, sellouts or beggars at somebody’s house.

Kasaila, who is also Member of Parliament for Nsanje Central, was responding to a question as to whether the DPP is shaken with the recent development that saw self-styled Lower Shure political giant  Mia joining the MCP.

Throwing out any kind of threat or concern regarding the move, Kasaila went on to say that people from the Shire Valley are not Mia’s puppets that whatever he says, they will dance to it.

“Do not look at us as tools. People of Nsanje and Chikwawa are people who think on their own. They are people that depend on their own sweat.

“People from Shire Valley get so angry when you talk about it this way because the impression you give is that all of us are fools of somebody else. We are not,” Kasaila said.

The DPP spokesman  also questioned the achievements that Mia had made in the area when he abandoned the DPP after the death of the then President Bingu wa Mutharika and joined the Peoples Party (PP) that got into power.

“I want to ask you people to tell me how many MPs for PP came from Nsanje and Chikwawa when PP was in power? And why should Mia be a threat today just because he has joined the MCP,” Kasaila challenged.

He charged that people from Shire valley are strong minded people who know what they want or not.

He cited the example of the late Gwanda Chakwamba who at one point in his Malawi Congress Party (MCP) political career commanded a very large following from the Shire valley.

“But when he continued moving on from one party to the other, we dumped him. These are the people from Shire valley. We can assure you that we are not sell outs because we are people who know what we want.

“So if you are talking about Mia, leave us alone. We will show you in 2019 what we are made of,” he said.

Member of the DPP National Governing Council Ken Msonda was careful in his words when he commented:”In politics all politicians are important but very few are useful. The useful ones are the ones who can actually get you votes during elections .”