Ex-Malawi Immigration Chief Mankhwala charged over ‘passport-gate’, released on bail

Anti Corruption Bureau (ACB) has pressed two charges to former chief immigration officer Hudson Mankhwala who was arrested on Wednesday over passports which were allegedly issued irregularly to non Malawians.

Mankhwala: Out on bail but charged with two counts

Mankhwala was taken to Lilongwe Magistrate Court where he was formally charged with two counts.

The first charge was neglect of official duty,  contrary to Section 121 of the Penal Code, while the second was abuse of office contrary to Section 25B of the Corrupt Practices Act.

But the court released Mankhwala on bail.

Nyasa Times understand that ACB will arrest more who were involved in the passport ring, including  immigration officer Francisco Scova  who reportedly aided a Burundian with a Malawian passport.

Scova cleared travel documents for a Burundian who was travelling as a Malawian with the names Alex Kelvin Chipeta who destroyed the documents in transit and was apprehended by German airport officials at Frankfurt.

People’s Party acting president and former Home Affairs and Internal Security Minister Uladi Mussa is also marked for arrest on the same issue, according to sources.

Burundians have been reportedly  obtaining  and use Malawian passports and with the help of immigration officers fly to Europe where they seek asylum.

Several African nations including Nigerian, Rwandese,  travel  as Malawians going for studies in the West, but tear up the papers once they reach Europe  a development that have led the once –respected Malawian passport to be subject of strict scrutiny in some western nation.

Follow and Subscribe Nyasa TV :

Sharing is caring!

Follow us in Twitter
7 Comments
newest
oldest most voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
Thoko
Thoko
7 years ago

I hope the CAN will go deeper because most of the Burundians got passports for MK8 million before Mankhwala became CIO. We all know who the culprit is but as usual since Mankhwala is from Mchinji govt has decided to use him as the fall guy.

Milton
Milton
7 years ago

If it was a poor guy who stole a chicken u wouldn’t dare try to give him bail & u would probably badmouthing him in court & even calling him very dangerous to the community blah blah this & that while now U just let the bad guy who is more dangerous to the people of Malawi on bail the next thing we gonna hear is there was no case against him because of lacking of evidence kkkkkk poor Malawi shame on our weak & corruptional government

Lundu
7 years ago

Stupid…..You mean Mankhwala as a manager could have been in BT, LL, and MZUZU supervising his subordinates all the time? Same with Uladi monitoring the ministry officials closely everyday? kaya

Hastimgs
Hastimgs
7 years ago

Why you do this tell us five reason every year to change passport why tell us.

Nabetha
Nabetha
7 years ago

This is very useless, typical of uncivilised nation. I will support the arrest of Mr. Mankhwala if he personally interviewed and accepted the passport application forms for the these foreign nationals. Before a passport is issued it follows a process. It is the duty of the counter officer to detect and verify if the details on the application forms are true and correct. There is nothing wrong that can stop a counter officer to ask the applicant some few silly questions with a purpose of checking if the applicant is really a Malawian or not. The following question also needs… Read more »

Mike
7 years ago
Reply to  Nabetha

Uku ndiye kulakhula mwa chimidzi. Ife kuno ku Joni timapeza ma pepala mu njila ya chonchi. Big fish working working with small ones. Sunakulile mtawuni aise. Cash gate from senior managers to junior managers. Ukukamba chani apa

KK
KK
7 years ago
Reply to  Nabetha

Why do we blame a president for everything then?

A manager is liable for the actions of his workers, Manager is the one who must have weekly meetings with them to instil discipline in them, do you thing none told him of what was going on.

It is people like you that drag us down as a country, your thinking is so low, unfortunately your type is the majority.

Read previous post:
Sexual minorities face worsening discrimination in Malawi – Thodi

The inhumane conduct against sexual minorities  is affecting access to health services and employment in Malawi,  an organisation that works...

Close