Kabwila defends her presence at MCP rally

Activist Jesse Kabwila says she has always identified herself with the Malawi Congress Party (MCP) principles, but has not yet joined the party.

Kabwila was reacting to suggestions from some quarters that she has joined MCP after she was seen dancing at a political rally in Salima recently. She was wearing the MCP cloth.

The picture was posted on the MCP Facebook and many other social networks.

In an interview, Kabwila admitted attending the rally in Salima, saying she likes its ‘principles and ideology’.

“I have always identified [myself] with MCP’s principles of food security, fiscal discipline and systems driven leadership that reigned in the times of first president Hasting Kamuzu Banda. I attended this rally because I think [that] of all major party conventions held thus far, the MCP was the most democratic,” Kabwila said.

She described the Reverend Lazarus Chakwera’s ascendency to MCP’s presidency as an opportunity for Malawi to end what she called the curse of recycled leadership and start of a new chapter of servant leadership that is anchored on solid technocratic base.

Kabwila, however, claimed that the MCP rally found her already in Salima and she only exercised her right to freedom of association and dress.

The activist has many times accused women of dancing for political leaders instead of engaging themselves into fruitful activities.

Asked whether she has changed her stand on women dancing for men, which she was actually doing, Kabwila said women are free to dance if they are not forced.

Kabwila, a Chancellor College lecturer, came into the limelight during the Bingu wa Mutharika administration when she fought for academic freedom. She has been involved in a number of rights campaigns, one of which is on sexual minority rights.