Karonga Nyungwe political Feud: Character assassination sparks controversy with rivals
A fierce fight over character assassination has emerged between the main competitors in the September parliamentary election for the Karonga Nyungwe constituency.
Political analysts are warning authorities to critically analyze the events leading to a tug of war between the candidates before taking action.
This development follows assassination claims made by the constituency’s UTM incumbent parliamentarian, Keneth Ndovie, who is serving his second term, against his neck-and-neck competitor, Wilson Mavwanya Sichali of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP).
Ndovie won by a narrow margin of 463 votes in a highly competitive race against Sichali, who was contesting for the first time.
At the center of the controversy, Ndovie is calling for the police to arrest his competitor on allegations that Sichali intended to assassinate him in order to reclaim the MP’s seat through a by-election—claims that Sichali has dismissed as laughable.
Speaking to the media in Karonga, Sichali expressed amusement upon receiving calls from senior police officials at both the police headquarters in Lilongwe and the Northern Regional Police Headquarters asking him if he had knowledge of the purported warrant for his arrest.
He stated that the narrative of the assassination operation itself is also absurd, considering how assassins typically conduct their operations.
“It is not my principle to discuss media propaganda against me, even during the past election period, but this matter has truly tested my patience due to the serious criminal accusations involved.
“To begin with, Ndovie is my brother, and we are both sons of the soil of Nyungwe constituency.
Political differences should not divide us but rather unite us to share visions and strategies for the socio-economic transformation and development of our constituency,” he said.
Sichali revealed that the root of the contention between him and Ndovie stems from the return of the DPP to power—a party that Ndovie abandoned for UTM after the Tonse Alliance won the 2020 elections.
“This is the background of the issue: he left the DPP, where President Mutharika appointed him Deputy Minister of Trade and Industry, and joined UTM as soon as the Tonse Alliance took over the government because he never anticipated that Mutharika would regain power.
“Now that the DPP is back in power, he is employing various tactics to return to the party, and one of them is the assassination plot accusations, which aim to tarnish my image and destroy my political career, which is very troubling,” he explained.
In response to a media question about why he laughed upon hearing the allegation, Sichali stated there is no way the police would ignore a case involving the assassination of a sitting parliamentarian if the claims were credible.
“Where in the world would someone go to a carpenter he knew decades ago and openly discuss hiring him as an assassin? Where would someone be so brazen as to lead hired assassins to the house of their target or follow them in broad daylight to kill them during an official swearing-in event?
“It might have made sense had he made the claims during the campaign and not now. This is very wrongful and evil,” he claimed.
He further disclosed that Ndovie has been targeting him even before the campaign began when Sichali expressed his interest in contesting for the parliamentary elections.
“There were numerous development projects that I was blocked from initiating for the people in the constituency because he claimed I did not have the mandate.
“The animosity escalated when I criticized the poor standards of some constituency development-funded projects due to the employment of unqualified relatives and friends as contractors.
“I challenge you as journalists to investigate the standards of the CDF projects on the ground and check with the District Council’s office regarding the amount of money spent on each project; you will be disappointed,” he asserted.
Our efforts to obtain comments from Ndovie were unsuccessful.
However, a political analyst from Mzuzu University, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, cautioned authorities to handle the differences between the two politicians carefully to prevent creating problems for innocent individuals.
“In a society dominated by propaganda concerning the struggle for power and political strength, it is very easy for innocent individuals to be implicated in activities they did not organize or participate in at all. At this point, our authorities should be very sensitive in handling the matter before taking action to avoid persecuting innocent people,” he said.
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