Former Attorney General (AG) Kalekeni Kaphale has challenged an application by the State seeking to stop him from representing TotalEnergies Marketing Malawi Limited in a contract breach case over his alleged conflict of interest.
In a sworn statement dated March 2 2026 and responding to an application made against him by AG Frank Mbeta,
Kaphale, now a private practice lawyer, argued that when the matter was brought before the AG’s office in 2020, he was preoccupied with the presidential elections case such that he delegated it to other officers.
The case in the High Court of Malawi Commercial Division concerns an K824 billion ($480 million) claim for breach of contract by Prima Fuels Ltd and the Malawi Government.
Kaphale denied handling any case involving Prima Fuels between mid-2019 and mid-2020, including commissioning the opening of its file, handling correspondence sent to the AG’s office and authoring approval of any responses to the outside world regarding the case.
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He said in the statement that during that period, he delegated most of his work, leaving his office to be run by the then chief State advocate Richard Santhe who worked in liaison with the Solicitor General (SG) and Chief Legislative Counsel (CLC).
Contends Kaphale: “The way the AG’s office used to function was that senior staff members were allowed to handle matters on their own… It is actually news to me that any such file was opened in my time and
correspondence was issued in the name of the office of the AG.”
While admitting that Chizaso Nyirongo served as CLC at the material time, Kaphale denied having interacted with him and private practice lawyer Joseph Kamkwasi on any matter regarding Prima Fuels.
He said: “Reading the letter exhibited as FFM1, all there is mention that counsel Kamkwasi shared progress of the arbitration and requested some help from government… Further, please note that Nyirongo uses the first person
singular in that letter and speaks on his own behalf…”
In response to Kaphale in a sworn statement dated March 4 2026, Nyirongo, who now works as Principal Secretary (Legal) in the Office of the President and Cabinet and authored the application exhibited as ‘FFM 1’ on behalf Mbeta, said when government communication is signed by a senior officer on behalf of the controlling officer such as the AG, it means such communication is coming from the controlling officer.
Nyirongo further said he agrees that the AG delegates work but while delegating, they give specific direction on the conduct of a particular work, hence, the AG becomes aware of any matter he is assigning “because he is the first point of call”.
In his application, Mbeta said he had learnt that in 2020 when Kaphale was AG, his office wrote Prima Fuels’s lawyers regarding the same case, sharing some information of “evidential importance”.
The case relates to a rebate on fuels that TotalEnergies was obliged to pay the government in accordance with a contract signed in 2001, but allegedly stopped honouring the payment in 2006.
