Lawyer Khumbo Soko says Chilima inquiry has become ‘about politics’, not justice

Private practice lawyer Khumbo Soko has said the parliamentary inquiry into the Chilima plane crash has become a political exercise rather than a search for justice, accusing the process of sidelining expert evidence in favour of questionable witnesses.

In a Facebook post, Soko said the inquiry had exposed a worrying tendency to “promote the exact opposite” of justice.

He said expert evidence appeared “unwelcome”, while witnesses he described as “magicians, ex-convicts, unlicensed informants, fake pathologists, fake doctors and sanctioned/suspended public officers” were being funded and celebrated, only to be exposed under questioning.

“My question is: What do we want as a country? justice or hatred?” he wrote.

Soko addressed the body of Major Abdul Lapukeni, which he said paperwork showed had been rescued from the crash site, taken to Lilongwe, stored at Sunset Mortuary, collected by the family and buried.

He argued that to describe Lapukeni as a suicide bomber or assassin was a “desperate attempt” to link him to others suspected of causing the crash.

He also questioned why a Mr Moyo was challenged over taking photographs without permission, when the Malawi Defence Force had been criticised for trying to stop photography.

Soko said the Bureau of Financial Investigations (BFU) and the Commission of Inquiry, along with aviation authorities, police, the MDF, doctors and pathologists, had all found no foul play, yet their reports had been rejected.

He said the current inquiry showed the same pattern.

“At this point, as a citizen, I conclude that this inquiry is not about justice; it is about POLITICS,” he wrote, adding that the country should be focused on hunger, forex and growth instead of “using public resources” to outdo one another.

He closed with a Chichewa proverb: “Paja akuti ndale nkudya; apa basi tidya ndale zomwezi, chitukuko mayazi.”