Malawi MP, Chinese quarry and a very convenient police summons

AN MP has been dramatically summoned to police headquarters — just days after helping secure a court injunction that embarrassed the government over its controversial plan to relocate the country’s electoral commission.

Emmanuel Chambulanyina Jere, Member of Parliament for Mzimba South, has been ordered to present himself at Police Headquarters in Lilongwe tomorrow — and his lawyer is in no doubt about what is really going on.

The summons, he was told, relates to a quarry purchase from a Chinese construction company working on the Jenda-Edingeni road back in 2021. Five years ago. A transaction for which, his lawyer pointedly notes, receipts exist.

“It is unfortunate that this matter is being raised after five years — and immediately after Chambulanyina has, with others, obtained an injunction against the relocation of MEC to Blantyre,” said advocate George Jivason Kadzipatike.

He went further. “You would be right to conclude in these circumstances that the State simply wants to victimise him for exercising his constitutional right to seek legal remedies in the courts.”

The MP himself said he first grew suspicious when police officers were spotted making inquiries across his constituency about the long-forgotten quarry deal.

“I noticed police officers going around my constituency inquiring about how the 2021 quarry was procured from the Chinese that were in the constituency,” he said.

For its part, the police have said remarkably little. National spokesperson Lael Chimtembo said only that he needed to make further inquiries — leaving plenty of questions unanswered.

The question now is whether this is routine police work — or something far more calculated.