Traditional leaders in Mzimba have reserved their decision to summon Mzimba Luwerezi Member of Parliament (MP) Immanuel Bofomo Nyirenda over remarks he made in Parliament about the status of the district.
Mabilabo could not be reached for comment on Wednesday but Senior Chief Mtwalo admitted on Wednesday that Nyirenda would not be summoned.
Said Mtwalo: “We saw politics in all that and we decided not to summon the legislator, but leave it like that. What he said had some political element.”
But Mtwalo insisted that he was against the Land bill because all along he understood land as being customary which is being administered by chiefs.
“That Land bill has been formulated by people who do not wish the President well. They are expecting a rebellion against the President after the Bill is passed. All in all, we do not support the Bill,” said Mtwalo, who is the most senior Ngoni chief in Mzimba after Paramount Chief M’mbelwa.
During the debate on the Land Bill, Nyirenda told Parliament that the land in Mzimba does not belong to government as indicated in the Bill, but to people of Mzimba who are development partners of Malawi.
He argued that when Malawi, then Nyasaland, was colonised in 1891, Mzimba was not part of the country, it only signed a treaty in 1904 at Ekwendeni.
The Nation
of June 5 2013 reported that the chiefs in Mzimba would summon the legislator over his remarks.
“That statement was very unfortunate. We did not expect it to come from the honourable MP… he [Nyirenda] is only fortunate he used his parliamentary privilege to say that,” Inkosi Mabilabo was quoted as saying.
Nyirenda confirmed that he is yet to be consulted by the chiefs.
