Greetings from Munda wa Chitedze Farm where I relocated from the hustle and bustle of your city. Peace and only peace reigns supreme here.
It has been drizzling these past few days. I wonder why the weatherman is not alerting us on time what to do with an imminent La Nina phenomenon. As usual, all they will tell us is that the rains will be normal or above normal.
Tell you what, on the farm, we always know that the weather forecast is there to keep farmers guessing. Isn’t it time they were giving the rest of us real time predictions so that we can well prepare?
The temptation was to write to you, Dear Diary, about the resurfacing of the eyebrows normal people are raising about a report on the investigation into the plane crash that claimed nine lives, including then vice-president Saulos Chilima.
On Tuesday this week there were parallel events to commemorate the macabre deaths. One was held at Nsipe in Ntcheu, Chilima’s homestead, Another one was held at Lunjika Turn-Off in Mzimba, a few kilometres from the plane crash site, presided over by President Lazarus Chakwera.
The politics of the two events are not for us to tell. The intricancies of what is contained in the three reports released on the plane crash is not for us at Munda wa Chitedze to discuss. Ours is only a worry on why, one year later, Chakwera and his government have not acted on the errant officers who were negligent on events leading to that crash at Nthungwa.
Mr President, the dust will not settle until the errant officers are given the boot. Including the one who lied to you that 10 people, and not nine died in that crash.
Your speech that midnight of June 10 last year mentioned a name that was not on that plane. That has never been corrected. This means you enjoyed being fed a lie and another on the events of that accident.
But, on the farm, we will not succumb to any other temptation. It has already been said here at the Munda wa Chitedze Farm that much as there was a Commission of Inquiry into that Chikangawa crash, and a report has been released, we wonder how the Chitedze farmers here can access the verbatim report on that accident.
Who asked what question to those who testified? What were the responses? We need that for closure at the Munda wa Chitedze Farm.
Dear Diary, we have seen inquiries into the deaths of Malawians like Evison Matafale, Robert Chasowa, the Mwanza Four and so much more. It is unfathomable that the government had its tail between the legs on the Chikangawa nine.
Like I said, on the farm, we cannot succumb to the temptation of talking about the accident report because that would make it unavoidable to grimace when President Lazarus Chakwera stuttered on whether or not his government received the report from the Germans.
It would also lead us into unnecessary cogitations on assertions by Information Minister Moses Kunkuyu that contradicted whatever Chakwera told Deutche Welle’s Josephine Mahachi.
The Chikangawa accident will continue to haunt Chakwera, whether he likes it or not. It is the hot potato in his hands. Already, opposition parties like the UTM and DPP are capitalising on Chilima’s death to put the MCP in a tight corner as the race towards the 2025 elections is at ‘on your marks’.
We will not succumb to that temptation of talking about that report. Neither are we going to openly talk about Chakwera’s gallivanting on the farm.
You see, in a couple of weeks, the president trekked to Mozambique, then Zimbabwe before The Vatican and Germany. For all we can remember, he rode a bike somewhere in Frankfurt!
Dear Diary, the pain is that soon, Chakwera will be embarking on a new leg that will see him in China and the United States of America.
We can’t talk about that, because some may misconstrue that for insolence that would consider Peter Mutharika’s stay-at-home leadership. It is already in the public domain that Mutharika stays home, even when delegates who endorsed his name as torch-bearer are looking forward to his appendix at the convention.
Oh Boy! Everything said, at the Munda wa Chitedze Farm, we missed DPP president Peter Mutharika at both events.
