Defiant Chakwera lays wreath at Gadama tomb: Ex-minister brutally killed by MCP

Malawi Congress Party (MCP) presidential candidate  Lazarus Chakwera  was on Tuesday defiant in the face of a court injuncting stopping him from going to the  grave of  late Aaron Gadama, a former  minister , as he went ahead  to lay  wreaths  on his tomb in Kasungu.

The family of  late Gadama, through law firm Taulo and Associates ,  earlier obtained an  injunction stopping  MCP leader from going to his grave  the  former  minister who was brutally killed by MCP regime, to lay wreaths.

But Chakwera and MCP proceeded with the function.

Aaron Gadama  is one of the three Cabinet ministers and a legislator murdered under the MCP administration in 1983.

Gadama is  believed to have been assassinated alongside Twaibu Sangala , Dick Matenje and former member of Parliament (MP) David Chiwanga during MCP’s one-party era in 1983 in Mwanza.

The four were driving in the south of the country when, by official accounts, their car went off the road and plunged down a 100-foot embankment.

The MCP failed to explain why the bodies bore the marks of gunshot wounds. There was no state funeral, or official condolences to the relatives of the dead – courtesies that would have been usual after a car accident.

A commission of inquiry after the dawn of multiparty democracy  said police acting on official orders had killed three of Kamuzu Banda’s cabinet ministers and  MP in May 1983 and disguised their deaths as a car accident.

Kamuzu Banda, who ruled Malawi from independence in 1964 until he was ousted in the first multi-party elections in May 2014 by his successor, President Bakili Muluzi, is remembered on May 14 a public holiday- a day which was his official birthday.

In a published article, Kainja states that Kamuzu ran a state without a justice system.

“He was the sole arbiter of truth. This is the side of Kamuzu that is slowly being erased from nation history, deliberately or not, and as we blur the lines of our past, it becomes more and more difficult to understand our present.

“ Airbrushing Kamuzu’s legacy and creating false nostalgia that is only aimed at diverting the national psyche from current leadership failures is not only injustice for those that suffered during his reign, it also stifles national progress and development,” he pointed out.

Kainja states that Malawi will not develop if nostalgia and hero-worshiping are drivers of its leadership.

“The country needs visionary leaders ready for public service. Leaders with policies that can drive the nation forward; this has nothing to do with anybody’s age, gender or tribe. Here the electorate have a role to pay: look beyond personalities and focus on their policies instead.”

Follow and Subscribe Nyasa TV :