Chakwera on HEQs says Kamuzu never founded MCP, it was Orton Chirwa: But MCP made him die as political prisoner

September 10, 2020 Wanga Gwede - Nyasa Times 47 Comments

President Lazarus Chakwera has said clarified that the founding president Kamuzu Banda was not the founder of the Malawi Congress Party (MCP) which he leads now, but late Orton Chirwa, the country’s first attorney general after independence, as the founding father of party.

President Chakwera: Its Orton Chirwa who founded MCP not Kamuzu

Chakwera said this Thursday afternoon when he appeared in Parliament to face His Excellency’s Question Time (HEQs) style-session from MPs, a constitutional requirement that has long been ignored by his predecessors.

He said MCP was not founded by Kamuzu.

“Kamuzu was father and founder of Malawi nation. MCP was founded when he was in [Gweru] prison and the Malawi Congress Party was founded by Orton Chirwa,” he said.

However, Orton Chirwa died as a political prisoner during the MCP dictatorship.

Chirwa died in prison in Zomba on 20 October 1992. Aged 73, he had been imprisoned for nearly 11 years for non-violent opposition to the MCP autocracy.

At various times during his imprisonment he had been kept in leg irons and much of his imprisonment was spent in solitary confinement.

His wife, Vera, is still alive and very old.

Chakwera, who quit the pulpit as head of Malawi Assemblies of God in 2013 to join frontline politics, wants to heal about the past atrocities and have a new Malawi that has bound together nine political parties branded Tonse Alliance which is governing.

Other alliance partners in Tonse include UTM Party, Alliance for Democracy, People’s Progressive Movement, Freedom Party, Umodzi Party and Malawi Forum for National Development.

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47 replies on “Chakwera on HEQs says Kamuzu never founded MCP, it was Orton Chirwa: But MCP made him die as political prisoner”

  1. What I saw were two leaders of opposition tussling each other. Chakwera’s presentation lacked decorum and was not of presidential standard in any way. Lazaro u leader of opposition wamukakamira. But I am not surprised, that’s the way how a parrot leader behaves.

    1. Mulomwe Ine, osadanda uchira. Ndalama zakuba zija zakutheranitu. Zakuba ndi choncho zimatha mosadziwika bwino. Koma choti udziwe ndi chakuti uyiwale zoti DPP Tippex Party idzabwerera m’Boma. Zinasonyezeratu pa 23rd June, 2020 kuti aliyense anatopa nayo.

  2. Chakwera is indeed the size of Nankhumwa. That’s why they are busy tussling each other. A real president is smarter than Chakwera who has no agenda on the table but only busy engaging the leader of opposition on trivial matters. We know that Nankhumwa landed a hard blow to Chakwera when he said the Hi5 agenda is simply empty and lacked deliverables. Eg the ” prospering together” pillar in Hi5, what does that mean? How can we measure that and hold abusa accountable? Nankhumwa wamupengetsa Chakwera that’s why amafuna kulira mu parliament. Did you notice Chakwera’s eyes? They popped out terribly and they nearly dropped to the ground due to intense pressure from Nankhumwa’s hard blow. Usovenge munganya Lazaro.

    2. I should think your way of expressing things shows that you are just talking on opposition point of view. Get out of slumber and accept that DPP is dead and it didn’t do anything tangible but just to steal from the poor Malawians.

  3. Abale amene muli ku parliament toyeni timange Malawi. Tisiye kumafunsa zopusa koma zomangilira Malawi yense. Ulendo uno palibe kuti ine ndi BOMA kapena Otsutsa ayi. Tivomereze zinalakwika, ngakhale zili zowawa.

  5. Kondwani Nankhumwa next time plz do your homework and come prepared ….. you are not dealing with a polofesa ndi a Dzonzi……it’s LMC and SKC

  12. I had no idea Nankhumwa was that childish……he was a big let down today in parliament …… a lost opportunity!

  13. If DPP is depending on Nankhumwa to take leadership of the party then there is no hope, he just releagueted himself today in parliament

  15. The facts of how Malawi Congress Party come into being. Check out this link: Not Secure https://historyofmalawi.com/?p=600

  16. Laz is refreshingly candid about Orton Chirwa: MCP DID kill him.

    Maybe — just maybe — it ain’t the party of darkness and doom any more.

  18. Chirwa died in prison in Zomba on 20 October 1992. Aged 73, he had been imprisoned for nearly 11 years for non-violent opposition to the MCP autocracy.

    At various times during his imprisonment he had been kept in leg irons and much of his imprisonment was spent in solitary confinement.

    DPP made us vote for this evil party out of desperation. A party which killed the founder, otembeleledwa.

    1. starnge, why did you vote for the party if you did not like it? are you going to blame DPP including your owninabilty to decide? Extremely strange! I would recommend you think for yourself and then vote and not allow any party even The Mighty DPP make you vote for who you dont want because this is the result! Be prepared we now have four years of this!’

    2. You are so stuck way back in the 90s before the referendum, you need to wake up and smell the coffee and realize that This is a New Day, it’s a New Dawn!

  19. Do you know who was the Secretary General and Administrative Secretary (a very powerful position in those days) of the MCP during Orton Chirwa’s abduction and incarceration? Clue: he is still alive and living somewhere near Limbs in the City of Blantyre.

  20. That’s the way to go Mr. Predident. If we have to heal the past atrocities and mend our history. Hope from now on reporters and journalists will take it upon themselves to make this straight.

  22. When Orton Chirwa was attorney general he created a lot of laws which one of them was anyone one found to be against the govt should be tried in traditional court, without any representation. He was convicted using his own laws he created. I remember well, that time at Kwacha but now we look at these people like heroes. Just saying….

    1. never wish nay one bad because in some way or another it comes back to you.By the way when you tell hstory tell the whole story otherwise you mislead people!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  23. Chakwera has the story for all Malawians. Of course MCP regime in its thirty one dictatorship distorted the founding of the MCP by placing the mantle of MCPfounder on the “followers” of the mighty Ngwazi. The followers weren’t mentioned by name. Aleke Banda and Orton Chirwa founded the party on 19th September 1959. As true nationalists the duo handed the party presidency to Kamuzu upon his release from Gweru prison.
    Kamuzu hated the Tonga by describing in the most unfortunate terms he never got comfortable with them. They seemed to have always got under his skin

    1. Orton and Aleke simply renamed the outlawed African National Congress to Malawi Congress Party to circumvent the ban.

  24. Look for the definition of atrocities before you use it please. UDF YDs and DPP cadets are criminals. Don’t forget the 21 innocent people on 20th July 2011. This is now a new Malawi and there will be no petrol bombings and no mysterious deaths like that of Njaunju.

  28. We have to accept that this is a huge, huge concession by Talk Talk Chakwera. We have to admit that his Talk Talk sometimes leads Chakwera into the territory of ‘truth’.

  31. That’s being stupid. Did he ever die as a political prisoner at Green city hospital and body be flown to Malawi? He would have died as a political prisoner if he died at chichi prison. If you think so ,then he deserved it because thousands of Malawians innocent people died as political prisoners

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