FertiliserGate: Will Malawians Ever Know the Truth—Or Is the Rot Too Deep to Dig Out?

Three years have passed since the botched 2022 Affordable Inputs Programme (AIP) fertiliser deal—three years marked not by accountability or closure, but by deafening silence, institutional finger-pointing, and a spectacular failure of leadership.

K563 million was recovered in August 2023 following an international legal process. Yet to date, no one in Malawi has been held accountable. No charges. No prosecutions. No answers. Instead, the public is being subjected to a slow, calculated suffocation of truth, hidden behind legalese and bureaucratic tap-dancing.

In 2022, the nation was shocked when the fertiliser deal, supposedly part of a subsidy program meant to uplift struggling farmers, was exposed as a rotten transaction involving dubious suppliers and missing millions. The response was swift—on paper. Parliament conducted inquiries. The Attorney General (AG) promised justice. The Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) said it was investigating. The Ombudsman issued a damning report calling for disciplinary and criminal proceedings.

But in 2025, Malawians are left asking: Where is the justice?

The AG, once fiery in his commitment to “go after all those involved,” is now silent. The ACB, which claimed to have instituted a probe, still has no concrete update. The DPP says they referred the matter to police, who in turn say they’ll “check” whether they even received it. Parliament, which gathered testimony and convened meetings, has yet to produce a single report. Is this incompetence—or a coordinated cover-up?

Make no mistake: this isn’t a matter of missing paperwork or administrative delay. This is a national scandal that cut into the very heart of Malawi’s food security and public trust. It deprived farmers—many of whom live below the poverty line—of the inputs they desperately needed. It exposed weaknesses not just in procurement, but in the ethical backbone of our public institutions.

Yet, somehow, the only people suffering the consequences are the ones who needed the fertiliser the most.

Let’s be honest. If the political will to get to the bottom of this existed, we would have seen movement by now. Instead, we’re treated to an orchestrated dance of non-answers and official statements that say everything and nothing at once.

A suspect was allegedly arrested in the United States. That was over a year ago. What has happened since? Where is the promised cooperation between local and international agencies? Where are the updates from the AG’s office? Why hasn’t Parliament tabled its findings? What happened to the Ombudsman’s clear recommendations?

The longer this silence continues, the more it looks like an attempt to protect powerful interests—people who were either directly involved or too politically valuable to implicate.

This is more than a scandal. It is a referendum on Malawi’s ability to hold its leaders accountable. It is a test of whether our systems serve the people or protect the powerful. And right now, the system is failing.

Enough. Malawians deserve to know the truth. Not filtered. Not delayed. Not hidden behind a cloud of bureaucracy. We deserve answers, and more than that, we deserve consequences.

The fertiliser saga must not be allowed to fade into just another forgotten headline. It must be pursued relentlessly—not just for justice, but for the future of public integrity in this country.

If we cannot get to the bottom of this, then what hope do we have for tackling bigger battles like corruption, food security, or governance reform?

This silence is not just negligence—it’s a betrayal. And Malawians are right to be angry.

Editor’s note: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial stance of this newspaper.

 

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