UTM Freezes Out MCP from Chilima Memorial as Political Hostility Deepens
The widening rift between UTM Party and the former governing Malawi Congress Party has exploded into the open after UTM deliberately excluded MCP leadership from this year’s memorial service for late Vice-President Saulos Klaus Chilima — a move exposing the deepening bitterness and unresolved tensions surrounding Chilima’s death.
In a stunning political snub, UTM spokesperson Felix Njawala confirmed yesterday that all political parties have been invited to the June 13, 2026 memorial at Ntcheu Stadium — except MCP.
“It is open to the public. All UTM supporters and other political parties are also invited. The only leadership that has not been formally invited is the MCP leadership,” said Njawala.
The memorial, organised by UTM, will take place about 15 kilometres from Nsipe, where Chilima was buried on June 17, 2024 after dying in a military plane crash alongside eight others in Nthungwa Forest, Viphya Plantation, Nkhata Bay.
But beneath the official explanations lies a political relationship now poisoned by suspicion, resentment and open mistrust.
Njawala claimed MCP members who attended last year’s memorial were booed by mourners, saying organisers are determined to avoid a repeat of the embarrassing scenes.
“We do not want that. We want to avoid it,” he said.
The decision lays bare the toxic collapse of relations between the two former Tonse Alliance partners, whose political marriage effectively disintegrated after Chilima’s death.
Since the June 10, 2024 crash, sections of UTM have openly harboured suspicions of foul play, despite two official investigations concluding that the crash was accidental. The unresolved emotions surrounding the tragedy have continued to fuel hostility toward MCP, the party that led the Tonse Alliance government in which Chilima served as Vice-President.
MCP publicity secretary Jessie Kabwila dismissed claims that MCP officials were booed during last year’s memorial, insisting she personally attended the event without incident.
“We would be very willing to be there, but if they do not want us, it is a free country and that is their choice,” she said.
Her response, though measured, underscored the uncomfortable reality that Chilima’s remembrance has now become another battlefield in Malawi’s fractured political landscape.
Political analyst Chimwemwe Tsitsi described the exclusion as unfortunate and divisive, arguing that a memorial for a former Vice-President should rise above partisan hostility.
“It is unfortunate for a political party to organise a national memorial event while excluding specific political groups,” he said.
The tensions were already visible during the first anniversary commemorations in 2025, when rival memorial events exposed the growing distance between UTM and MCP.
President Lazarus Chakwera led one ceremony at Lunjika Turn-off near the crash site in Mzimba, while Chilima’s family held a separate memorial mass in Nsipe. Later, UTM organised its own candlelight vigil attended by opposition parties including the Democratic Progressive Party, United Democratic Front, Alliance for Democracy, People’s Party and Freedom Party — but notably not MCP.
What was once a celebrated political alliance that swept into power through the court-sanctioned June 23, 2020 fresh presidential election has now deteriorated into open political cold war, with Chilima’s memory increasingly becoming the fault line dividing the former allies.
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