Landowners tremble, chiefs stand powerless and the police watch helplessly as anarchy and lawlessness reign.
Welcome to Chitipi on the outskirts of Lilongwe capital city where a ruthless, law-defying gang calling itself ‘Land Task Force’ is grabbing land with unchecked violence in full view of authorities.
The land-grabbing spree has turned Chitipi into a battleground, leaving communities hopeless and in fear of the gang that even defies court orders, forcing others to hire their own musclemen to protect their
assets.
Two weeks ago, truckloads of panga-wielding youths descended on legally-owned farms at Chitipi and allocated plots to each other.
This, we have established through interviews and court documents, has been going on since the Malawi Congress Party (MCP)-led Tonse Alliance came to power in 2020.
But MCP has categorically denied any connection to the gangs of terror and their illegal land-grabbing acts.
Four-year reign of terror
Corroborated information and site visits show that the main target for the relentless land grab is a 170-hectare farm of Bangladeshi Mohammed Mannan and his neighbours, the George Nanthambwe family, who have both lived in the area for over 20 years.
The two claim they have had their crops uprooted and workers assaulted more than once.
The latest attack was two weeks ago when Nanthambwe faced what he described as a horrible experience after his banana plantations were uprooted and workers threatened with death if they fought back.
“I cannot really understand that this is happening in Malawi. My workers left the farm for fear of their lives. Where are authorities when these guys are terrorising us with total disregard to the law?” Nanthambwe asked.
Mannan refused to comment on account of his safety.
Village head Mwanza, in whose area the farms lie, is speechless as she has also become a victim of violence.
Mwanza has given up on the police who she thinks cannot do anything as the gang seems to be above the law.
“I have these nasty messages in my phone attacking me for simply standing up for what I know; that Mannan is the right owner of the land and so is his neighbour,” said Mwanza, who showed us the vulgar messages from an unknown number we have recorded.
We captured the same frustration from both Senior Chief M’bwatalika and Traditional Authority Malili, who are looking forward to an end to these acts.
M’bwatalika said she led a team of chiefs to meet Minister of Lands Deus Gumba Banda.
We are also reliably informed that President Lazarus Chakwera has moved in to direct responsible authorities, including Ministry of Lands and the police to stop this lawlessness. An intervention which is the first of its kind since the fracas started, according to a well-placed source from Ministry of Lands.
The genesis
Corroborated information from community leaders, the task force and media reports show that the land-grabbing mission was launched following a directive from former minister of Lands, Kezzie Msukwa, in 2020.
In an interview, the task force’s leader Alfonso Zude Jamali confirmed that the Msukwa directive is what inspired their mission.
land. | Jacob Nankhonya
“The minister [Msukwa] came and ordered that we get the land and redistribute it because Mannan did not have documents. On top of that, he is a foreigner who does not deserve dambo land,” claimed Jamali, popularly known as Zudu around Chitipi.
Local media reports, including a ZBS online post on September 12 2020 and a Rainbow TV report in 2021, suggest that Msukwa visited the area in September 2020 and directed that the task force redistribute the land, claiming that Mannan had failed to produce land ownership papers.
When contacted, Msukwa said: “I would find it easier to explain in person than writing for you to better understand me.”
We asked for a meeting, but he never responded to our messages and calls for days.
On his part, Lands minister Gumba Banda could not say if the claimed Msukwa directive was the position of the ministry.
At first he promised to check the authenticity of the directive but, days later, after a reminder, he simply said: “This administration follows the rule of law”.
He added: “Those who legally own land have all the rights to their land. The purported land-grabbing issue at Chitipi is water under the bridge. This, therefore, means that no land owner should live in fear.”
Nanthambwe, despite being an indigenous Malawian, has been targeted on assumption that he may have benefited from Mannan’s estate, according to Jamali.
Court orders ignored Both Mannan and Nanthambwe hold valid court orders obtained in 2020, stopping anyone from encroaching on their land.
Mannan’s order, Civil Cause 37 of 2020, was granted on September 16 2020 while Nanthambwe’s, Land Cause 105 of 2020 was issued on October 21 2020.
On December 21 2022, according to court records, Judge Simeon Mdeza, ordered Jamali and five
others to be imprisoned for six months for contempt of court. This followed Mannan’s application, through lawyer Wapona Kita, for contempt of court as Jamali and team continued to encroach on his land despite the 2020 court order.
“The defendants do hereby be arrested by the Sherriff of Malawi with the assistance of the police from Central Region police headquarters and sent to Maula for six months from their date of incarceration,” reads Mdeza’s order copied to commissioner of Police for Central Region and Maula Prison officer-in-charge.
We checked with Maula Prison, but there are no records that Jamali and team served time for contempt of court in 2022.
“They are supposed to be arrested and committed to prison. The contempt of court order is with the police,” said Kita.
National Police spokesperson Peter Kalaya is yet to respond to our questionnaire submitted a week ago despite reminders. But police sources familiar with the case have told us that their inaction is generally “because the people involved are politically-connected”.
Court records, however, further show that Jamali has been convicted twice for his illegal acts on these farms.
In 2021, he was convicted and handed a suspended sentence for intimidation after Mannan reported him to police for threatening to kill him.
In December 2022, Jamali was again handed a 36–month prison sentence for causing bodily harm to Mannan’s workers, according to files in Criminal Case 743 of 2021.
“It was very clear from the evidence that the accused person and his followers do not want to believe that this said piece of land does not belong to them,” reads the judgment, delivered in December 2022.
Prison records we have accessed show that Jamali served only 12 months as he was released in December 2023 having benefited from two presidential amnesties.
Lilongwe Prison spokesperson Stephano Zimba said, without the amnesties, Jamali was expected to be released in December 2024. According to Zimba each of the [general] amnesties was six months, which reduced his sentence by a year.
The first amnesty was in April 2023 just after serving four months and a second one in July— seven months into his sentence.
But even this prison sentence changed nothing as Jamali continued his illegal mission.
During our visits, between March 4 and 20 2025, we observed that sprouting housing projects, including Jamali’s, had invaded Mannan’s farm.
Between March 1 and 4 2025, there were teams of individuals who had come in trucks and cars sharing plots while a group of youths with pangas provided protection.
We saw people measuring plots, some laying foundations while others simply dropped bricks for construction. Part of the site has some structures which are at window level. This happened for three days
running and not even police could stop the illegal acts.
One of the beneficiaries of the illegally-distributed plots, who refused to be named, said they got a message from a fellow MCP party member who informed them that there were plots allocated to party supporters and that is how they rushed to the place.
A community member, who is familiar with the task force and its mission, said this whole arrangement is a scam.
He said in 2020 it was also the same arrangement that the task force allocated land to villagers and asked them to sell and pay commissions.
“Even before the plan materialised, the land owners obtained court orders and the whole plan crashed. This time the task force has changed its approach and it is using party supporters from Msundwe, Mchesi and other areas,” said the community member whose narration corroborates what we gathered from chiefs, government officials and police who also believe there is some political backing in all this.
A police officer at Chitipi said: “The mob came in trucks. Some are from Msundwe, Mchesi and other places. They are literally paid to wreak havoc.”
Another police officer from the regional office also indicated that this matter has become difficult to handle because of the group’s connection to the ruling party.
Another source familiar with Mannan’s story claimed that Jamali is just a front of a political cartel involving ministers who want to grab this estate and benefit themselves. The source shared names of the ministers, but we have not independently established the link.
Nanthambwe, in a letter to the President on March 1 2025, also linked the MCP to the land-grab.
“It appears that law enforcement officers fear repercussions should they arrest members of the ruling party, the Malawi Congress Party,” reads the letter copied to ministries of Land, Homeland Security, the area’s parliamentarian Jean Sendeza, who is also a Cabinet minister, and the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB).
Nanthambwe indicated that he sent the letter through Sendeza who is aware of the situation.
When contacted, Sendeza said: “Indeed, I am aware of this issue and it is being handled by the line ministry.”
Jamali himself denies any connection to MCP, but heaps praise on the current administration for providing a conducive environment for them to get what belongs to Malawians.
“We could not do this in previous regimes because they were corrupt and sided with a foreigner [Mannan],” said Jamali.
Gumba Banda, who is MCP’s national organising secretary, distanced the party from Jamali and his team.
In 2022 the MCP-led Tonse Alliance administration amended land-related laws enacted in 2016, including the Customary Land Act, which now restricts foreigners from owning customary land.
