Speaker sends stern warning to misbehaving MPs: Kaliati, Kabwila clash

Speaker of the National Assembly Richard Msowoya has warned misbehaving legislators that they face stiff punishment if they continued disrupting business in the House.

Msowoya did not name the culprits but this follows an incident on Friday when Minister of Gender, Children, Women Affairs and the Elderly Patricia Kaliati exchanged bitter unprintable words with Malawi Congress Party (MCP) spokesperson Jessie Kawila.

The incident nearly degenerated into chaos. The two party officials nearly fought in the House as some MPs jeered and cheered turning the House into a kindergarten playground for adults.

Msowoya said he would not hesitate to invoke relevant standing orders, rules of the House to mete out punishment to misbehaving legislators.

He said expectations from Malawians is very high therefore the House needed to conduct business with seriousness and dignity.

Most opposition members of parliament accuse Kaliati of unsolicited interjections during debate, she normally interjects while seated on her parliamentary seat.

Two weeks ago, a parliamentarian from Kasungu, in his contribution to President Peter Mutharika’s state of the nation address, said the public sector reforms would be useless if cabinet ministers, like Kaliati do not change their mind set by avoiding silly interjections when a member of parliament is on the floor.

irritated the government side in Parliament when she described the 25-minute State of the Nation Address (Sona) by President Peter Mutharika as a “tweet”.

A tweet is a post made on the Twitter online message service which has a restriction of 140 characters and nothing more.

In her response to the President’s address, Kabwila called the President’s speech “a shockingly short” like a Whatsapp message and trimmed down to an “empty” tweet that failed to satisfy Malawians.

“What they heard was what can be described as a Twitter message and at worst maybe a WhatsApp message not a State of the Nation Address,” she said.

Leader of the House Francis Kasaila accused Kabwila of making disparaging remarks against a Head of State.

MCP president Lazarus Chakwera who is also leader of opposition also described Mutharika’s SONA as “zero plan” speech.