On Friday, around 6am, he was in Chiradzulu, shocking into tears of joy an elderly woman he found in her crop field. He handed her two 50-kg bags of fertiliser and maize seed, then, for a while, he tilled her land with a hoe.
In Machinga, he was thronged as he visited vendors, where he took over preparation of local street food among bemused spectators.
He had similar displays in Mzuzu and Lilongwe a couple of months ago either in front of or surrounded by adoring crowds.
Vice-President Michael Usi is drawing enthusiastic crowds during his ‘man of the people’ visits to communities—weeks after opting out of a UTM presidential contest.
His crowd power may be thanks to his office, which provides him with a motorcade and access to media that draw people to him as governance expert Reinford Mwangonde postulates.
Conversely, Usi may be building a silent political coalition that could turn him into a kingmaker or, as governance, public policy and electoral politics guru George Chaima posits, be the “ladder Malawi Congress Party [MCP[ can use to step up to the roof top to achieve the 50+1 elections rule”.
This is a man who some declare his future “in limbo”—remaining in what is left of the MCP-led Tonse Alliance administration as Vice-President while his party, UTM, severed ties.
Usi also refused to partake in his party’s elective convention that replaced him with Dalitso Kabambe, the outsider who rode on the back of the UTM establishment wing that fought Usi.
In boycotting the convention, Usi said he did not want to be tainted by the unconstitutional decisions of the party’s mutineering National Executive Committee (NEC).
Usi insists he is still in UTM. He has a throng of supporters following him in his public engagements in regalia bearing UTM symbols and colours, much to the chagrin of the party’s top leadership, including Kabambe.
Kabambe—the former Reserve Bank of Malawi Governor, is a UTM newcomer who could not wait out his then boss, Democratic Progressive Party leader Peter Mutharika and joined UTM the moment the chance for leadership opened up, pulling off a shocking and decisive victory that stunned his presidential rivals.
Yet, it is the larger-than-life shadow of the man who was not even on the ballot in Mzuzu, now an ordinary party member, that Kabambe sees everywhere under the UTM banner every day.
Chrispin Mphande, a development political scientist from Mzuzu University, says much as Usi has some sympathisers, the other camp in UTM can hardly give him space to thrive there.
But Chaima says Usi’s claim of being one of them in UTM is clearly and practically evident in the grassroots support he appears to be commanding.
“He is followed and surrounded by UTM members. What is happening around Usi is giving UTM NEC sleepless nights because they don’t know what Usi’s political egg may hatch tomorrow. His actions and talk should not be underestimated,” he says.
Chaima says by whipping up a coalition of grassroots people with his retail politics, Usi is slowly building up his own political capital and is so far filling a political gap in the South and demonstrating that he may be a stronger ally for MCP and President Lazarus Chakwera in the South where he can diffuse dissenting voices and make inroads with voters.
He believes Usi’s end game will be known shortly.
“Usi turned himself into a politician and there is no way he can play politics of blindness as he blends this with fashionable comedy. Although he is not a top leader in UTM, he is citizen number two for this country, which is quite a position of authority and influence.
“He can’t stick to that position without proper political alignment. His ultimate political plans will be known sooner. Follow the path, and let’s wait and see,” declares Chaima.
Mwangonde, the governance expert, agrees that while Usi can leverage the power of his office to try and woo a substantial group of Malawians to translate into some political capital, his gains will be meaningless without a stable political home and flag that actually supports him
