PP reaches out to Kachali

Two days before People’s Party (PP) acting president Uladi Mussa’s abortive meeting in Mzuzu on January 31, the party reached out to former vice president Khumbo Kachali to seek ways to bring sanity to the erstwhile ruling party, Weekend Nation has learnt.

In an interview on Tuesday, PP publicity and administrative secretary Ken Msonda said he was accompanied to the meeting in Mzimba by another party member, Caesar Fatch, where they discussed various issues aimed at rebuilding the party.

Msonda and Fatch said they were saddened by the fact that Kachali is being sidelined from full participation in the party.

After Mzuzu, the two took their peace mission to Lilongwe where they met with Salim Bagus and his team, who had obtained an injunction stopping the appointment of Mussa as the party’s acting vice-president and Kamlepo Kalua as third vice-president.

The High Court in Mzuzu, however, has since vacated the injunction, advising the warring factions to appear before the party’s legal affairs sub-committee within 14 days to resolve the issues.

In an interview on Tuesday, Mussa said he was yet to be approached by any team trying to resolve the differences.

But in a separate interview, Kachali said his meeting with Msonda and Fatch was private and it is not in his nature to divulge issues discussed privately.

Asked if he felt being sidelined or blocked, Kachali—one of PP’s potential candidates for presidency—denied such was the case, saying time would tell and he would leave it to people to judge.

The former vice-president said he respects the party’s constitution and its authority, adding he did not want to create an impression he was giving the authority pressure.

Msonda said while the legal affairs sub-committee would be working on the differences, the party hopes they would engage in contact and dialogue where there are differences of opinion.

Fatch said it was sad some people are going to great lengths to block members, such as Kachali, who want to join the party.

Fatch, who aspires to contest for party presidency, warned that firing people such as the party’s former provincial chairperson Christopher Mzomera Ngwira (legislator for Mzimba Hora) was ill-advised as an MP is an asset no party can afford to lose.

There was fracas in Mzuzu on January 31 where Kachali followers clashed with Mussa’s when the latter, who was recently appointed as acting president by Joyce Banda in her absence, went there to conduct the regional meeting.

Following the fracas, the party fired Ngwira from his position, accusing him of igniting the fracas. Ngwira is a strong supporter of Kachali and he once declared him PP leader following Banda’s failure to return home. n