Ex JB security officer seen as Mphwiyo’s body guard

A security guard of immediate past president Joyce Banda  was conspicously seen as body guard of gun-shot survivor former Ministry of Finance budget director Paul Mphwiyo at the High Court in Lilongwe.

The guard, Mr Mphangazira was seen on Tuesday with  Mphwiyo at the High Court in Lilongwe where prosecution and defence lawyers made their final submissions in the case where former minister of Justice and Constitutional Affairs Ralph Kasambara and four others are accused of attempting to murder the former budget director.

Kasambara, who is representing himself, is being charged alongside the Manondo brothers—Pika and Dauka—James Kumwembe and Robert Kadzuwa.

Mphwiyo spent the whole day at the court with Mphangazira sitting next to him.

Meanwhile, after Nyasa Times first reported that Malawi Government has partially disarmed former president’s security detail, it has been confirmed,

Government has disarmed two of the security officers that Banda has been using since leaving office after her loss in the May 20 2014 Tripartite Elections.

Former president Banda’s press aide Tusekelo Mwanyongo said the security personnel were told that the firearms were being taken away to balance with what the other former president Bakili Muluzi (1994 to 2004) security people have.

“If the reason provided was genuine, we have no issue. Actually, we are not complaining because the rest of the firearms are still intact,” Mwanyongo is quoted by The Nation on Tuesday.

Banda has been out of the country since July last year, flying between the United States of America, Europe and Africa (notably, Ethiopia and South Africa), addressing various international fora.

She is expected to return home next month and former first gentleman Richard Banda arrived in the country last week to prepare for his wife’s return.

Some of the former president’s major engagements include meeting former United States president Bill Clinton at the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) in Morocco on May 5 and receiving of her doctorate degree on May 15.