Welcome to the Malawi politics of retribution, SKC
Politics of retribution (wunimanyenge and kuthana) will not take Malawi anywhere.
In a circular to all Principal Secretaries and Heads of Departments this week, Chief Secretary to the Government Llyod Muhara reminds the officers that the Vice-President is entitled to privileges and benefits in accordance with the President (Salaries and Benefits) Act Cap 2:02. In compliance with the legal requirement, Muhara reminds all the addressees that the Vice-President, who now happens to be Saulos Klaus Chilima, should only be accorded such privileges and benefits as prescribed by law whenever he is performing government business. He—Muhara—therefore reminds the addressees to adhere to this requirement.
Cap 2:02 stipulates that the Vice-President should, among others, be accorded the following benefits: Free house in Lilongwe, Free guest houses in Blantyre and Mzuzu, three motor cars; Motorcade escort by the Police, one personal bodyguard, one staff supervisor, one head of Security Guard, six security Guards, one store keeper, two cooks, two chauffeurs, One head gardener, four gardeners. There are other benefits.
Despite the above provision, before the fallout with President Peter Mutharika, there were 52 security guards working in Vice-President’s Office. But barely days after Chilima declared his political mission to challenge APM and DPP, his security detail was reduced to a mere seven guards to man his two official residences in Blantyre and Lilongwe, his office at Capital Hill and his motorcade day and night. How is that possible?
This, in essence, means some of his official residences, office and motorcade will not be guarded at all. I can assure SKC that if these benefits were not specifically mentioned in the Constitution, they would have been taken away from you.
Well, welcome to the politics of retribution. I am sure you are not even surprised with this. You must have anticipated all this to happen after APM first stripped you of the only ministerial position you were holding for Disaster Management. This is after the Public Sector Reform programme which you ably and professionally handled was unceremoniously taken away from you last year.
You are not the first one to go through such. Other Vice-Presidents before you have seen it all. Former president Bakili Muluzi did the same thing to Justin Malewezi and Cassim Chilumpha; the late Bingu wa Mutharika also treated JB the same way. You should therefore get used to such things. That is politics the Malawian way. The idea is to show you (unimanyenge) that you are not in charge until you occupy Plot Number One.
Now what has happened—DPP government’s review of your security detail—also means that you cannot fully rely on it to manage your security. You are on your own. Nay! You are with the United Transformation Movement (UTM). Even the few that have been left to man your security detail, you will soon discover you might not fully rely on them to give your office the security you need as they will be shuffled and moved around at the discretion of your boss.
What you and UTM badly need is to go out there and get your own security to mingle and fuse with those that government will put at your service. You need your own army of cadets and your own intelligence—people whose loyalty and allegiance is undivided and is to you and you alone.
That is how over the years, almost each ruling political party in post-independence Malawi, has bred its own cadre of young democrats and cadets, regardless that many of them have been famed for taking the law into their own hands. So, welcome to the world of wunimanyenge and kuthana politics. For now it is the unenviable situation you are in and must learn fast to manage it and do so well until May 31 2019.
What do you know about security? How many hours does a police officer is required to be on a shift? How many security points does Mudi House alone have???? Or in a layman’s term how many security officers are required to man Mudi House at a given shift???? What about the Lilongwe residence? What about the offire? How about the security for the family? If you’re in a very good position to answer these questions with informed knowledge then you can question why the 52 officers or so. You think 52 officers go all together at one go & surround the house 24/7/365? That’s why they call it security detail. Some they go on holiday, some go on off duties but at the same time each & every living second there must be security provided in all security points of the occupier of the office of the Vice President regardless of who that individual is. How many state security personnel who are manning Sanjika Residence at the moment? What about Chikokoko Bay State Guest House & all the state Houses? The number is even more than 4times what was allocated to the Vice President. Every Nation takes pride in protecting it’s leaders. If anything happens to Vice president who can benefit from that?
Chilima cannot say he stands for change when he is being guarded by 52 policemen and women. It is not necessary and we should not tolerate such waste of taxpayers money when people in villages can’t access police services.
Waste of taxpayers money??? These are not specifically employed to guard the VP. They are Police Officers only assigned to the VP just like they work in various station!!!!
Chilima has been exposed as wasteful and extravagant. 52 police guards? It’s shocking he is challenging government’s decision even as he knows he is only entitled to 7 police guards.
Misguided article which epitomises the stupidity that defines our country. Why are you asking how it is possible for Chilima to have 7 police guards when actually that is his constitutional entitlement? As Malawians, we should not even be having this conversation because the extravagant Chilima has now been given what he is entitled.
Chilima is very dishonest. How on earth was he having all that security when he is ONLY entitled to 52 police menr? If he is standing for CHANGE, why did he accept all those policemen to guard him whem Malawians are struggling to get help from the police? Chilima is worse than some of us thought. REALLY? 52 policemen? Even the British PM does not have that number of police guarding and going around with her.
Steve Nhlane, you like all Chilima sympathisers are contradicting yourself. You are clearly admitting Chilima was having more security than he was entitled to have. So what’s the issue? He had 52 instead of 7. Where is the politics of retribution when Chilima is now having what he is entitled to, and by the way, he is not working in government but running about for UTM. The government has done well to strip him all those extra policemen and women.
It is not only a problem of politics of retribution but also politics without integrity – people getting into public office and not having any sense of what honesty and integrity means. Chilima would have done himself a lot of favour by simply resigning instead of clinging to the VP position. One cannot serve two masters, when one tries to do so, you become dishonest. Now that he has formally established UTM he should resign and be move above the usual dirty politics and show he is better than all those who have clang to their positions and refused to resign even after disagreeing with their party and moving out. Well, the likes of those who refused to resign so that they could seek a fresh mandate be they MP, VP or president.
APM Muthalika according to what is documented how many security guards does he need and how many does he have now?
Excellent & brilliant question! !!!!!!!!!
I think the problem is that Malawians are not well informed. Looking at how this article has explained in the security detail, then I see no problem. We needed to worry if the security was less than what the condition service stipulates. I think our TV stations and newspapers should for the next months educate Malawians on what the constitution says etc other than causing the alarm and causing panic among Malawians.
Hahaha you are writing as if SKC dropped from MARS to join DPP.He knew what he was getting into.It’s just that he did not get the Reward he was promised.
Mumunva kuwawa, mumunva kupweteka SKC is the chosen one,, God will protect him🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥
The question is have the guards been left less than what the act provides for. If the act says 7 guards and he has been left with seven, is there anything wrong with that. The extra guards is just part of the extravagance of government and abuse of resources which he SKC was enjoying and did not put an end to. Am pretty sure he could have said I have too many guards if he cared about wasting resources, but then when we are in power we are okay with anything. It’s same way APM used to make noise about huge motorcade ya JB. At first he reduced it but as time went by its getting longer and longer.
So we shouldn’t worry about the security detail. We should look now at other sections of the act and see where APM himself is overdoing stuff and put pressure on him, and not put pressure on him to continue flouting laws to benefit SKC. What Malawi lacks is the rule of law and this is just a sign of it. SKC shudn’t even worry about this. He can easily use other security agents. He can hire former MPS or Army guys for extra security and those will be loyal to him not guys answerable to Jose.