Chakwera must reverse dubious land sales or Malawi will be on fire!

As you descend, about to land either at Blantyre- Chileka International Airport or  Kamuzu International Airport in Lilongwe,  you can’t help admire how virgin much of our land—a symbol that we still have sufficient space to grow our cities.

But don’t be fooled.

Little, if not none, of this land belongs either to government or native Malawians.

I would bet that over 90 percent of the virgin land you admire when you descend either belongs to some white guy or, which is always the case, few Asians.

That is a sad reality before our eyes, as Malawians.

The previous regimes, in their get-rich-quick escapades, have sold off the best of this country’s through heinous and dubious ways unimaginable.

In some areas, you have cases, and they are many, where locals wake up as criminals, accused of trespassing on a piece of land they have lived for ages.

It’s these inconsiderate, corrupt, heinous and dubious land grabs between corrupt government officials and richer ‘investors’ that is irking and displacing honest Malawians—eventually, spurring wars of control between indigenous Malawians and these so-called investors running known and unknown errands in this country.

That is the story of Kumbali Lodge in Lilongwe which, over the weekend, faced the fury of villagers who torched part of properties.

As expected, we are all quick to condemn the act of the villagers but, strangely, we are slow to listen to stories of unannounced displacements these honest Malawians have suffered over years without redress of authorities.

Police, again, is quick to arrest over 48 villagers and, again, promise to arrest more yet there is a deeper story of exploitation, displacement and agony at the heart of these villagers.

I have chosen to stand with them. Not just them; but also millions of Malawians across the country who are landless because their land has been sold off by corrupt government officials.

If government plays deaf to the dubious and heinous land sales that happened during previous regimes, this country will shortly be on fire.

President Lazarus Chakwera need to stand up right now—or he should even institute a Commission of Inquiry into the dubious land sales and, as a nation, we must move to reverse them.