DPP takes predecessor, other off the hook
Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) Masauko Chamkakala has taken off the hook his predecessor Steven Kayuni and senior assistant chief.
State advocate Dziko Malunda in a case the duo was accused of abuse of office.
In an interview yesterday, he said his office decided to discontinue the matter because the public funds alleged to have been abused were recovered.
“The resources in question were already recovered. The matter should be handled with the prescribed terms of the Malawi Public Service Regulations [MPSR],” Chamkakala said.
A copy of the purported warrant of arrest for Kayuni which went viral stated that the former DPP allegedly directed a travel agent to change his travel destination on an air ticket from Vienna in Austria to Addis Ababa in Ethiopia costing the Malawi Government about K7.4 million for his personal benefit.
Malunda, on the other hand, was alleged to have arbitrarily directed the same travel agent to change his destination on an air ticket from being Vienna in Austria to Johannesburg in South Africa, costing the public purse K984 038 for his personal benefit.
Anti-Corruption Bureau director general Martha Chizuma, whose agency purportedly obtained the warrants of arrest for the duo, was not available for comment last evening.
Kayuni had earlier taken Chizuma to court over contents of a leaked audio conversation, but the case was withdrawn.
Chizuma was accused of making use of speech capable of prejudicing a person against a party to judicial proceedings by indicating in the audio that Kayuni is corrupt and compromised.
President Lazarus Chakwera earlier reprimanded Chizuma while a presidential commission of inquiry into Chizuma’s December 6 2022 arrest faulted the judgement of both Chizuma in the leaked audio and Kayuni in his handling of the matter.
