Msonda ‘courting’ DPP?
He famously dismissed most officials who quit People’s Party (PP) when it was shoved out of power through the May 2014 ballot as the party’s ‘Pruning Season’ to cleanse it from dirt and offload excess baggage.
PP outspoken spokesperson Ken Msonda, the seemingly fresh leaf in the PP dried up, and got pruned when he tendered his resignation on September 14 2016, but Nation on Sunday can reveal that he is not done yet. His journey is still on, and this time around, he is courting the governing Democratic Progressive Party (DPP).
Regardless of his claims upon resigning from PP, that he was taking a rest from active politics and that he wanted to seek God’s guidance on his future political career, the ‘Foot Soldier’, as he is fondly called, met DPP vice-president (North) Goodall Gondwe in Lilongwe just five days before he tendered his resignation.
Msonda reportedly told Gondwe, who is Finance, Economic Planning and Development minister in Peter Mutharika’s administration, he was going to quit PP in a few days’ time and he expressed interest of joining the blue league [DPP].
While Msonda laughed off reports that he met Gondwe and talked politics before his resignation from PP, Gondwe in an interview on Friday confirmed meeting him on September 8 at his house in Lilongwe.
“I never courted him, it is him who came to my house and told me he was quitting PP. He went on to say he may be joining our party,” Gondwe said.
Asked how he reacted to the news, Gondwe said DPP is a party that would always ensure that its membership base grows and he did not see any reason the party may block people from joining it.
Gondwe said: “He told me his feelings, but he has not joined us yet. It will be up to him to come and tell us when he is ready. I think his choice of approaching me was because I am the party’s vice-president, and we come from the same Northern Region.”
Gondwe, while laughing, dismissed as untrue suggestions that he was organising or he organised a meeting between Msonda and Mutharika, emphasising that the only fact was that Msonda visited him at his house and had a chat about his political future and interest to join the DPP.
“I told him he is welcome. He would get back to us if he meant it,” Gondwe said.
Put to him that he met Gondwe and expressed interest to join DPP, a party he has fought against for a long time and clashed with its officials on numerous and different issues, Msonda denied meeting Gondwe.
“Hahahaha, akutero? (That’s what they are saying?). It is not true. I did not meet honourable Gondwe. The fact is after I quit PP, political parties and individuals have approached me and asked me to join their parties.
“I did not know I have this value in Malawi politics until I quit PP. I have told people that have made advances that I want a break,” said Msonda.
He said when people are throwing stones at a tree, that means there are fruits in that tree, explaining that if there is that talk about him, it means he has potential in politics.
Msonda, who joined PP in January 2012 after he quit the United Democratic Front (UDF), said his position remained the same that he wanted to devote his life to God and family.
The man, who often times accused DPP leadership of shielding its officials allegedly involved in the plunder of public funds at Capital Hill widely known as Cashgate, said he wanted to deepen his faith before bouncing back into active politics to contest in the 2019 parliamentary election.
Msonda once courted trouble when he declared that the best way to deal with the controversial gay issue, which was under intense debate then, was to simply start killing gays and lesbians.
