ACB quiz business lady Manganaye: AG Kaphale, Matemba clash

Anti Corruption Bureau (ACB) on Monday summoned Ms Manganaye Kambauwa, a socialite and prominent business lady in Lilongwe, to interrogate her in the ongoing cashgate probe.

ACB sources said they questioned Kambauwa following a tip off and that she was not charged.

“She was questions on allegations of extortion but no charges have been pressed,” said ACB investigator.

A whistle blower is said to have claimed that Kambauwa and Peoples Party official Ephraim Chivunde took K15 million  from cashgate chief suspect Osward Lutepo to pay off  ACB.

The money was allegedly paid by a contractor Israel Kaunda on behalf of Lutepo.

The anti-graft investigator said Kambauwa gave her side of the story in an  interview conducted by ACB  officers.

ACB investigator told Nyasa Times that Kambauwa denied the allegations and suspected it was work of one lawyer who is also answering cashgate related cases to “smear many people and confuse the cashgate trials.”

She claimed the lawyer is on “social media trial on cashgate and wants to win a court of public opinion” and that he has hired some reporters to be spinning stories in the smear campaign and also targets at Peter Mutharika administration.

Kambauwa  ACB interview comes hot on the heels of reports that ACB deputy director Reyneck Matemba and Attorney General Kalekeni Kaphale have been exchanging emails attacking each other on the handling of the cashgate cases.

Matemba accused the Attorney General of compromising the prosecution of cashgate suspects like Paul Mphwiyo, Victor Sithole and  convict Treza Namathanga Senzani, who were once his clients on Cashgate.

The Principal Prosecutions Officer, Jacob Nambiri  has meanwhile reported Kaphele to the Director of Public Prosecution (DPP), Mary Kachale  complaining that the AG was blocking the officers from doing their jobs.

Kaphale reportedly ordered the release of an Immigration Repatriation Officer, Pius Thamando, who was arrested for perjury.

The officer laid under oath in an inquiry over the deportation an Ethiopian national.

It is alleged that Kaphale also stopped the inquiry into the whole case, by barring the courts from summoning the immigration officer.

But Kaphale has argued that whoever is aggrieved by the court orders obtained “can apply to have the orders dissolved if there were no sufficient grounds to obtain them in the first place”