Malawi’s longest serving Speaker gets military honours during burial

A funeral service for of the country’s longest serving Speaker of Parliament Nelson Khonje took place Wednesday at Chikolosa Village Traditional Authority Kanduku in Mwanza district.

Government ordered full military honours for the burial of the body of the 96-year-old former Speaker who died on November 24.

He served as Speaker of Parliament for 12 years during the one party Malawi Congress Party (MCP) led government from 1975 to 1987.

He was born on December 6 and died just 12 days before his 96th birthday.

Khonje  also served as member of parliament for Mwanza central for 21 years.

Born on December 6 1923, Khonje, a secondary school teacher by profession, joined politics in 1971 to become member of Parliament (MP) for Mwanza, then the only constituency in the district.

In 1993, at the dawn of multiparty democracy, he quit MCP and joined United Democratic Front (UDF) before retaining his seat as MP for Mwanza Central Constituency in 1994 first post-independence multiparty general elections.

Khonje went to Matandani and Malamulo Seventh Day Adventist schools before qualifying for Cambridge O-Level through correspondence. In 1962, alongside politician the late Aaron Gadama, he attended Moray House College of Education in Scotland.

He returned to Malawi in 1964 and taught  at Masongola, Ntcheu and Ntchisi Secondary Schools up to 1971.

As speaker of parliament he preceded Alec Mjuma Nyasulu who served from 1971 to 1975 and was succeeded by Malani Lungu who served from 1987 to 1992.

Mwanza Central MP Nicholas Dausi, who is also Minister of Homeland Security, described Khonje’s demise as a big brow to the family, Mwanza district and Malawi as a whole.

Khonje is survived by five children.