Former presidential adviser Chris Chaima Banda has resigned from his position as Malawi Congress Party (MCP) first deputy director of strategic planning, citing persecution and massive abuse of public funds.
In a three-page strongly-worded letter dated September 26 2025 addressed to MCP secretary general Richard Chimwendo-Banda, Chaima Banda further relinquished his party membership and says the resignation is with immediate effect.
Narrating his long history with MCP and how he returned from England to rejoin the party in 2020, Chaima Banda says over the past five years, a cartel of thieves invaded and used the party to steal from public coffers.
He says the looter s infiltrated State House and deceived President Lazarus Chakwera, who also leads MCP, into abandoning the party’s true members.
“The last five years have been painful to Malawians who have suffered at the hands of obscene thieves who raided public resources through the MCP government as a cover. True MCP members were thrown under the bus by a cartel of thieves who hijacked MCP and government machinery.
“The worst of these thieves invaded State House, they lied and convinced [out-going] President Chakwera to abandon the party and its membership, leaving those who had fought so hard for MCP in dire poverty,” says Chaima Banda in the letter.
He further alleges that he was framed in a corruption case for fighting people who, he says, stole money from the National Oil Company of Malawi (Nocma) and Malawi Energy Regulatory Authority (Mera).
He says: “I have been in court for the last four years without justice being handed to me. While I attended court sessions, not a single fellow member of MCP came to my hearing to give me moral support.”
In an i n t e r v i ew yes terday, Chaima Banda refused to give details of the said thieving cartels “for fear of lawsuits”, and neither committed to report the allegations to law enforcement agencies.
He also dismissed criticism that he has resigned because MCP has lost the presidential election, saying all valid reasons have been outlined in his letter.
“I could not resign while these people were in power and persecuting me. I also sent a message to the National Executive Committee to say I was on my feet with tears of joy because MCP had lost the election,” he said.
Describing him as a man with a promising political future, MCP deputy secretary general Gerald Kazembe said Chaima Banda’s allegations of looting of public resources were unsubstantiated.
He said: “Chaima Banda is a good man. A very talented man with a great political future. [And so we] we are disappointed with his decision to resign, but we wish him well.”
Reacting to the development, Political Science Association spokesperson Mavuto Bamusi said the resignation reflects the deepening political corruption where individuals only associate with a party when it is in government.
He observed that if left unchecked, the development could signal the beginning of the end of MCP, saying it is a sign of politics of greed and self-enrichment.
“This could be the beginning of a trend as we may likely see more MCP officials jumping ship. It reveals the dissatisfaction that senior MCP members may have had with the party’s state of intra-party democracy and weak leadership that has cost them power,” he said.
Political analyst George Chaima said in a separate response that this could be the dawn of a fresh crop of “migrant politicians who never rest but move from one party to another”.
In February 2025, the State closed its case in which Chaima Banda and others are accused of having conspired to influence the awarding of Nocma fuel contracts.
Chaima Banda, former minister of Energy Newton Kambala and Alliance for Democracy president Enoch Chihana are accused of attempting to influence former Nocma deputy chief executive officer Helen Buluma to award contracts to Trafigura, Finergy and O’ Lakes.
The State closed the case after parading its last witness, Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) i nves t igator Robert Mbuzi Mkandawire, who testified that investigations by the bureau es tabl ished that there was interference in the award of 2020/21 fuel contracts.
Chief resident magistrate Austin Banda asked the parties to file the submissions by March 21 and also asked the State to file notice of the date of ruling.
Chakwera di smissed both Kambala and Chaima Banda from their positions following their arrest by the ACB in August 2021.
