Tension mounts over land sale in Lilongwe

Tension is mounting at M’bwetu Village in Traditional Authority (T/A) Chitukula in Lilongwe where community members have ganged up against their group village head M’bwetu. They accuse him of selling to a foreigner land designated for a primary school and other development projects in the area.

The tension last week led to the arrest of M’bwetu Primary School head teacher, a teacher and a Standard Eight pupil after pupils at the school started clearing part of the sold land to create a sports ground.

In an interview on Monday, ActionAid-funded Lilongwe Urban Poor People’s Network (Luppen) coordinator Harry Mamba—whose organisation helped to bail out the teachers—said lower chiefs in the village have been complaining to T/A Chitukula to intervene and reclaim the land from the foreigner but to no avail.

“We are saddened by the sale of the land meant for the school in this area. We have checked with Lilongwe City Council who have told us that they are not aware of the sale of this land.

“The Ministry of Lands, Housing and Urban Development also says they are not aware of the sale of this land despite the owner claiming that he has obtained a title deed for the land,” said Mamba.

Village head Lemwe in the area claimed the previous holder of M’bwetu chieftaincy allocated about 18 hectares of land for the school and other development projects, including a health centre in 2002, but the incumbent GVH M’bwetu sold more than 17 hectares of the land to a foreigner in 2011.

“We have been complaining to our T/A Chitukula but he has never come to this place to address this problem. The land for the school, the hospital and other projects in this Kauma area is in the hands of a foreigner who says he wants to establish a private farm,” said Lemwe.

In an interview, M’bwetu refused to comment on the issue, saying the matter is in court.

T/A Chitukula said he is ready to summon VGH M’bwetu to address the matter, saying he did not meet the complaining chiefs when they sought his intervention.