Kandodo says not interested for presidential run
Malawi’s ex-finance minister Ken Kandodo says he has no plans to run for presidency or persuing to become a running mate in 2014 elections.
Kandodo has been subject of fevered speculation that he may run for president – either as a ‘dream team’ running mate with ruling DPP’s presidential candidate Peter Mutharika, or for the opposiiton MCP amid mounting speculation that anti-John Tembo loyalists have gone flat out shopping for possible candidates to challenge the veteran opposition leader.
But Kandodo flatly denied a 2014 run on top job, saying he is ‘not in any way interested’.
As the simmering leadership crisis in MCP reaches boiling point, Kandodo who is founding president Kamuzu Banda’s nephew, says he can not accept if party rebels approach him to lead MCP.
The former Finance Minister said this during Zodiak Brodacsting Services Tiuzeni Zoona interview program on Sunday.
“If they (MCP)come to me. I will tell them to look elsewhere because I am a member of DPP and also the party’s Director of Economic Affairs,” he said.
Asked by the host Pilirani Phiri, if he was a life member of DPP that he can not quit, Kandodo was tongue-tied but insisted that MCP must sort its ow problems.
Quized if he was fired from cabinet due to incompetence because fuel shortage started when he was Finance Minister, he refused to take responsibility.
“That’s not true. I worked hard ask those who know me. The crisis started with a number of factors including our face off with IMF,” he said.
On a MIJ radio recording in which Professor Peter Mutharika and Charles Mchacha were caught gossiping about Kandodo, Chimunthu Banda, and Binton Kuntsaira that they were scheming for the presidency, he downplayed the matter.
“That recording is baseless. The accusations are not true. I am not interested in the presidency except serving Kasungu central (his constituency),” he said
Drawn to comment on his loyalty to DPP since the incident, Kandodo said all was well and that he is geared to continue serving the party.
Asked if the Kamuzu family was instrumental to have Jumani, a man claiming to be Kamuzu’s son, deported, he said the family had no hand.
“We also got it from the media of his deportation…..look that boy is fake. We told him to have DNA with his mother (Mirriam Kaunda) or father (Johansen) but he refused. He wanted Kamuzu but there was no way we could exhume the body for Juman’s sake,” he said.
This was the first time that the former Finance Minister was giving an interview, five weeks after President Mutharika booted him from cabinet and that was after he had presented the infamous ‘zero deficit budget’ which has since exploded in the laborotary.
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