VP tells Bingu’s death inquiry to ‘bring answers not questions’
The Commission of Inquiry into the death of former president Bingu wa Mutharika has been sworn in with Vice President Khumbo Kachali asking the commissioners to “bring answers” to the questions that been raised.
“Malawians and family members are eagerly waiting to hear about the events that transpired during the death of former Head of State. I ask you to bring answers and not questions,” Kachali said.
The Vice President was speaking at a swearing in ceremony of members of the commission at the Office of the President and Cabinet (OPC) in Lilongwe.
“You have a mandate to inquire and put things to an end regarding death of Bingu wa Mutharika,” he said.
President Joyce Banda appointed Retired Justice Elton Singini as chairperson of the inquiry; Dr. Charles Dzamalala (pathologist); former Inspector General of Police, Joseph Aironi; Dr. Tionge Loga; Elizabeth Sibale; Father Joseph Mpinganjira; activist Brian Nyasulu; Esther Chioko and lawyer Jabbar Alide.
President Banda informed parliament that the commission will look into when and how Mutharika died, what medical attention he received, and the “activities of various individuals during and in managing the transition.”
After Mutharika died April 5, the government took two days to confirm his death and allow Banda, his vice president, to step in.
The former ruling DPP were trying to prevent Banda from becoming president, even though the constitution decrees the vice president should take over.
They were planning to install the brother of Mutharika, then Foreign Affairs Minister Peter Mutharika as the interim president while they try to use the courts to block Joyce Banda becoming the president.
Nyasa Times were the first to break the news of Mutharika’s sudden collapse after a secret meeting with lawmaker Agnes Penemulungu.
Widow to late Muthalika, former first lady Callista, is reportedly suspicious about the manner her husband died.
The Commission of Inquiry is intended to clear the mist.
Another person who also took oath was Justice Isaac Mtambo who has replaced Ben Mbewe, Chief of Staff for State Residence in the Commission of Inquiry into the death of Robert Chasowa who was a fourth year engineering student at the Polytechnic.
Chasowa, who was also a political activist, was found dead lying in a pool of blood at the campus on September 24, 2011 with a deep cut on his forehead.
Police ruled his death as suicide but were contradicted by pathologist Dr. Charles Dzamalala whose post-mortem results revealed that Chasowa was murdered.
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