To many Raphael (Ralph) Kasambara was no ordinary lawyer and politician. He had a kind heart. His death was as heartbreaking as the heart’s elasticity could tolerate. Our indomitable and unimpeachable leader of delegation, the Genuine Professor Dr Joyce Befu, MG 66 and MEGA-1, and us, her boots in the mud, felt we deserved a comprehensive police report and lodge, where he died. Ralph had grown so big he was everybody son, uncle, and father.
We thought we would ask after chimeta to allow the mourners calm down and accept inevitability of death. Unfortunately, and doubly so, his funeral coincided with the death of Vice-President Saulos Klaus Chilima and his entire entourage (may their souls continue resting peace) in plane accident at Nthungwa in Nkhata Bay on his way to the funeral of the very Ralph Kasambara, someone Chilima described as “a comrade”.
A comrade is some with you whom you share something deep in your heart. It is something associated with the communist or socialist fight for betterment society. A luta continua (the fight must go on) would the last salutation in every conversation. In Mozambique, you hear it very often, particularly among people who participated in or witnessed the wars of liberation.
Since then, our minds have been focused on that tragedy. Two reports have come out so far. The UTM, not satisfied, has promised to commission another inquiry when their party forms the next government. If they don’t form the next government?
We don’t think the “other” governments would be interested in pursuing the issue any further except to find someone specifically guilty.
Now that the death of the Vice-President has been “settled”, we want to know what happened to Ada Kasambara, who went to sleep in his room, a healthy man and only to be found dead the next afternoon, door half closed or half open, with him covered in a bath towel over his chest.
We know he suffered from a heart disease, which over the years he had learned to manage very well, personally. Is it what finally took him to the grave?
There are allegations of persons that secretly visited in the night and left before he was found dead. Did this person know he was dead? If so, why he or she report to Lodge Management if the visit was innocent? Did this person kill him? Violently? Why did he not shout for help?
There is another allegation of drugs being found in his room. What drugs? For his heart condition or for recreation purposes?
Answers to such questions and more would help those Tonga Chiefs and Akuteka understand who or what killed their beloved son.
If you ask prison warders at Zomba Maximum Prison, they will tell you he was a volunteer teacher who could handle any subject with the same ease, from mathematics to history. For someone, who got a 1 in every subject at MSCE, the task was easy.
In addition, he dedicated his whole life to Malawi. And died in Malawi. He founded the party, The Congress of Democrats. Remember it? And he was the youngest lawyer who joined the late Mrs Emmie Chanika to found the Civil Liberties Committee (Cilic), which fought for the realisation of rights for all Malawians. He became Minister Justice in the government of (ka)Ngwazi Bingu wa Mutharika and Minister of Justice and Attorney General in the Joyce Banda administration. He represented so many people in court, we can’t count.
He can’t go like that.
