Questions over CDF spending in constituency where MP’s election was nullified
- A K370 million bridge at Luweya, where a former councillor was convicted over diverted bridge materials. An MP the High Court declared not duly elected, still awaiting the Supreme Court. Her husband and predecessor, whose abuse-of-office conviction was upheld on appeal. Nyasa Times examines K1.178 billion in new CDF projects and the court record behind them.
M’mbelwa District Council has launched a K559 million house for a government agricultural extension worker at Chaboli — the same polling station where, in November 2025, the High Court found that Democratic Progressive Party cadres had handed cash to voters during the parliamentary election. In the same judgment, the court declared the constituency’s MP, Martha Mzomera Ngwira, not duly elected. She has appealed, and the Supreme Court of Appeal, which heard the case in January, has yet to rule.
The council also launched a K370 million bridge across the Luweya River. Materials meant for Luweya bridges were at the centre of a CDF criminal case that ended last year with the conviction of former councillor Dan Nkosi. His co-accused, former Mzimba Hora MP Christopher Mzomera Ngwira, was acquitted. Christopher Ngwira is Martha Ngwira’s husband and predecessor as the constituency’s MP, and separately has an abuse-of-office conviction, upheld on appeal in 2022, over a publicly funded school project in the constituency.
The record does not show that Martha Ngwira has committed any wrongdoing in the current projects, and this news outlet makes no such claim. But the council has not published the documents — Bills of Quantities, professional cost estimates, tender evaluations or selection records — that would show how the projects were chosen, priced and awarded.
Two projects, K929 million
Both projects are in Mzalangwe, Hora Constituency, and due for completion within 90 days. The Chaboli project comprises a house, toilets and a water supply system; its contractor was not named.
The Luweya bridge includes erosion-protection works and is being built by a joint venture of Be Quality, Rama, and R and U Construction. The council valued the two at “about K900 million”; its own figures total K929 million.
At the launch, Ngwira — also Deputy Minister of Gender, Children, Disability and Social Welfare — said the projects would improve service delivery and create local jobs, and that the bridge would ease movement after the previous crossing collapsed in March 2024.
Resident Washington Hara said it would particularly help pregnant women travelling for healthcare. District Commissioner Emmanuel Bulukutu urged communities to monitor the contractors’ standards; council chairperson Joel Nkhata appealed to residents to guard materials against theft.
A price that needs explaining
The Chaboli house accounts for about 60 per cent of the two projects’ combined value. Earlier this month, the same council launched a K249 million piped-water scheme at Bulala Trading Centre, also in Mzimba Hora, and an identically priced scheme at Edingeni in Mzimba South West — each with a solar-powered pump, two tanks and 10 water points. Chaboli costs K310 million more than Bulala: more than twice as much.
Buildings and water schemes are different kinds of work, and headline figures alone cannot establish whether a price is fair — K559 million may cover site works, electricity, professional fees and contingencies the council’s description omits.
The documents that would settle the question — the priced Bill of Quantities, drawings, the pre-tender engineer’s estimate, the bids, the evaluation report and the signed contract — are not public. The engineer’s estimate matters most: it shows what professionals expected the house to cost before contractors named their price.
Money on an unprecedented scale
Under the Reformed CDF, each of Malawi’s 229 constituencies receives K5 billion in 2026/27, up from K200 million — a national total of K1.145 trillion.
The 2026 Guidelines reserve 72 per cent, about K3.6 billion per constituency, for community development projects. Chaboli alone is 11.18 per cent of Mzimba Hora’s full allocation and about 15.5 per cent of its project money; with Luweya and Bulala, the three projects total K1.178 billion — 23.56 per cent of the full allocation, and roughly a third of this year’s project money.
In September, government released K85.5 billion to 30 of the 36 local councils as advance payments to contractors, taking CDF-related releases since April to almost K145 billion.
M’mbelwa is not among the six councils excluded for failing to complete procurement. The constituency’s full 2026/27 programme — every project, contractor, price and timetable — has not been published.
Chaboli in the judgment
On 24 November 2025, in Henri Mumba v Malawi Electoral Commission and Martha Munthali (Martha Mzomera Ngwira), High Court Judge Thomson Ligowe ruled in Mzuzu that Ngwira had not been duly elected.
The petitioner, an MCP candidate represented by lawyer Justin Dzonzi, proved that known DPP cadres distributed between K2,000 and K10,000 to influence voters at Chiseng’ezi and Chaboli polling stations, and that a DPP representative had for a time acted as polling officer at Chasimba.
The judge held that the irregularities, unrebutted by evidence or cross-examination, had largely compromised the election’s integrity.
The findings are under appeal. They do not implicate the people of Chaboli, and nothing in the public record links the choice of Chaboli for the K559 million project to the election dispute — though the council has not published records showing when or how the site was selected, which would clarify whether the decision preceded or followed the 2025 dispute.
Appeal stalled
Ngwira’s lawyer, Christon Ghambi, announced an appeal the day after the judgment. In December 2025, the Supreme Court of Appeal granted permission to appeal and suspended the High Court ruling, halting a by-election the Electoral Commission had scheduled for 17 March 2026.
The appeal closed on 21 January 2026; as of July, The Nation reported judgment still outstanding, and none has been reported since.
Legal scholars have criticised the delay in 2025 election cases generally, arguing that uncertain representation undermines accountability and communities’ voice in development decisions.
The practical effect: more than a billion kwacha in new projects is being committed in Mzimba Hora while the constituency’s election outcome remains before the courts.
From husband to wife
Christopher Mzomera Ngwira represented Mzimba Hora before his wife. Barred from standing in 2019 after a bankruptcy ruling, he was replaced on the DPP ticket — after an initial switch to Henri Mumba was reversed — by Martha Ngwira, who won the seat. Six years later, Mumba, now standing for the MCP, brought the petition that saw her declared not duly elected.
A conviction upheld
Following an ACB investigation into the Lukwelukwe School project, funded through Mzimba District Assembly’s Local Development Fund, the Mzimba Magistrate’s Court convicted Christopher Ngwira of abuse of office on 28 September 2020 and sentenced him to 48 months with hard labour on 16 October.
Reports at the time said he had used forged bank documents to obtain K650,000, of which K400,000 was later returned; Martha Ngwira, then the MP, attended the sentencing. In May 2022, Justice Chimwemwe Kamowa of the High Court in Mzuzu upheld the conviction on appeal, reducing the sentence to immediate release on health grounds. The conviction is Christopher Ngwira’s alone and is not evidence of wrongdoing by his wife.
Luweya’s earlier case
In Criminal Case No. 50 of 2020, the ACB prosecuted Christopher Ngwira and former Mzilawaingwe Ward councillor Dan Nkosi over CDF resources during their 2014–2019 terms, alleging diverted materials worth about K3.76 million meant for the Chankhalamu and Luweya bridges, about K2.12 million for Mzalangwe Police Unit, and materials meant for Nthumba Health Centre.
The trial closed in March 2024; judgment followed over a year later. In May 2025, Senior Resident Magistrate Godfrey Nyirenda acquitted Ngwira, finding the State’s witnesses had not linked him to the diversion. The ACB said it would consider appealing.
Nkosi was convicted on three counts of misuse of office — including the Luweya bridges count — and one of forgery, and sentenced to four years; his lawyer said he would appeal.
A bridge with a history
The need for a Luweya crossing is long documented: M’mbelwa’s 2017–2022 District Development Plan listed bridge works there, including a Baphani-Mzalangwe-Luweya bridge. The council says the structure being replaced collapsed in March 2024.
Unanswered in the public record: what was previously built at Luweya and under which programme, whether the 2024 collapse was investigated, how much public money has already gone into crossings there, and how the new K370 million design addresses the old one’s failure.
The procurement trail
M’mbelwa advertised CDF works across its constituencies from June 2026 under reference MDC-CDF-W-1-2026-27.
At a recent bid opening, the council’s director of finance, Robert Ziba, said the process would be transparent and that no contractor would be favoured. The tender results for Chaboli and Luweya have not been published — so for a K370 million contract, the public cannot see which companies make up the Luweya joint venture, which leads it, each partner’s share or track record, what rivals bid, or what the engineer estimated the bridge should cost.
With a 90-day completion window, payment certificates, inspection reports and any contract variations for both projects fall due before year’s end.
The record
K559 million is being spent at Chaboli, a polling area named in a judgment that declared the constituency’s MP not duly elected — a judgment still awaiting the Supreme Court.
K370 million is being spent at Luweya, where materials meant for the bridges there have already produced a criminal conviction. The MP’s husband and predecessor stands convicted, on appeal, of abuse of office over another development project in the constituency.
And three projects worth K1.178 billion — almost a quarter of Mzimba Hora’s K5 billion allocation — have been launched without their Bills of Quantities, cost estimates or tender records made public. If the prices are fair and the projects were chosen on merit, those documents will show it.
THE COURT RECORD
- Henri Mumba v MEC and Martha Munthali (Martha Mzomera Ngwira), Electoral Petition No. 62 of 2025, High Court, Mzuzu — 24 November 2025: Justice Thomson Ligowe declared Ngwira not duly elected.
- Martha Ngwira and MEC v Henri Mumba, Supreme Court of Appeal — stay granted in Civil Application No. 58 of 2025; hearing closed 21 January 2026; judgment pending.
- Lukwelukwe School case (ACB v Christopher Mzomera Ngwira), Mzimba Magistrate’s Court — convicted 28 September 2020, sentenced 16 October 2020; upheld on appeal by the High Court in Mzuzu, May 2022, sentence reduced to immediate release.
- CDF materials case (ACB v Christopher Mzomera Ngwira and Dan Nkosi), Criminal Case No. 50 of 2020, Senior Resident Magistrate’s Court, Mzuzu — Ngwira acquitted May 2025; Nkosi convicted on three counts of misuse of office and one of forgery, sentenced to four years.