Paramount chief risks arrest over chieftaincy
Paramount Chief Chikulamayembe of Rumphi risks being arrested if he goes ahead with the installation of Traditional Authority (T/A) Mwamlowe in defiance of a court order stopping the process.
Private practice firm Jivason and Company, lawyers representing the Mwamlowe faction protesting the choice of the incoming chief, has since written the Office of the President and Cabinet (OPC) to stop the planned installation of T/A Mwamlowe.
The protest follows a misunderstanding on the succession following the death of the then T/A Mwamlowe in 2014 in Mlowe, Rumphi East.
Sources told The Nation that Chikulamayembe and Rumphi District Council are planning to instal the new chief in question in Phoka, away from the chieftaincy’s traditional base of Mlowe to avoid the hostility from other royal families.
The letter to OPC, dated October 19 2016 and copied to Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development and Chikulamayembe, reminds government officers about the unresolved misunderstandings in the Mwamlowe chieftancy.
The letter said the court is still waiting for action from both the district commissioner (DC) and Chikulamayembe to summon all concerned famillies to resolve the matter.
Reads the letter in part: “Since the matter is in the High Court, which is waiting to receive the name of the rightful heir to the throne, no one can be appointed to the throne before the judge of the High Court is furnished with the results of the meeting of all the concerned families as ordered.”
The lawyers have advised the OPC to comply with the directives order issued by the High Court in Mzuzu within 14 days and after that period the DC and Paramount Chief Chikulamayembe risk being in contempt.
Rumphi DC Rusizi Nhlane confirmed on Sunday that the courts had written Chikulamayembe to resolve the matter.
The Nation understands that the chieftaincy rotates among three famillies of Kachipapa Mwamlowe, Njokofwano Mwamlowe and Chinkhuwile Mwamlowe.
The three families are capable of producing a successor to the throne as it has been the customary procedure from time immemorial.
Paramount Chief Chikulamayembe on Friday said he was not the right person to respond to media enquiries and referred the matter to Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development. n
