In 2021, economist Henry Kachaje, a motivational speaker who revelled in discrediting formal employment, successfully auditioned for the position of chief executive officer (CEO) at the Malawi Energy Regulatory Authority (Mera).
But it was not his sudden U-turn that stirred a heated debate across the nation thrilled by his entrepreneurship tips, including how to mint millions from sugarcane tops.
After passing the interview, Kachaje’s academic qualification for the job was soon questioned by the Office of the Ombudsman, a public protector created by Section 120 of the Constitution.
The probe, influenced by an applicant for the job, found that his recruitment process was flawed because Kachaje did not present a master’s degree during the selection interview.
In probably a first, Mera swiftly obtained an order stopping the public protector from publicising the findings and petitioned the High Court of Malawi to determine the legality of the Ombudsman’s inquiry, not necessarily the credibility of the new CEO’s papers allegedly obtained from an unaccredited university.
Justice delayed
So urgent was the case that Mera served the injunction midway through the unveiling of the much-awaited findings.
In contrast, the court was in no hurry to resolve the constitutional review that left the energy regulatory authority led by a CEO whose credentials were questioned.
The High Court of Malawi took three years to rule in 2024 that the Office of the Ombudsman erred in probing Kachaje’s recruitment because the concerned applicant had the liberty to sue Mera in the Industrial Relations Court.
Kachaje’s victory, based on a technicality, shattered the Ombudsman’s stuttering case complete with failed attempts to lift the injunction.
The outcome should delight the Mera CEO who might have endured the agony of children and grandchildren persistently quizzing him why he clung to a job that had become almost unattainable.
Yet, the wheels of justice turn too slow.
The nation should be worried that the voiceless are suffering while those employed to serve justice continue to work as if they owe no one a hoot.
This case personified one of the wrongs neglected or tolerated by the custodians of the country’s justice system, where five judges won the coveted Chatham House Prize for urgently and bravely resolving the 2019 Presidential Election dispute despite reported bribery and threats. The world admired Malawi’s Judiciary for annulling the messy election that stirred serial protests nationwide and, ruling in favour of a fresh presidential poll in June 2020, which observers proclaimed was the most credible since the return of democracy in 1993.
It is ironic that the Judiciary allows cases to rumble for years, even on sheer technicalities.
In the case against the Ombudsman, Mera argued that the public protector hastily intervened as the recruitment of the authority’s CEO was the prerogative of its board, as such, any disputes should be taken to court. In its fightback, the Office of the Ombudsman claimed to have sufficient interest because the case involved maladministration and injustice by a government agency
Meanwhile, Kachaje ran down his disputed contract and signed a new one last September.
Justice dies in silence
This is not the first case to stick in the courts for justice to die in silence.
The High Court of Malawi took over a decade to clear technicalities in former president Bakili Muluzi’s K1.7 billion corruption case, dropped by the State last year.
‘Justice delayed is justice denied’ is the cardinal rule in justice systems that work, but it seems to matter no more in Malawi. Not even the case that cast a shadow over the decisions of a constitutional oversight body, a people’s protector who had similarly sent heads of other government institutions packing
In June this 2024, lawyer Ralph Kasambala, an ex-minister of Justice who was jailed for an attempted murder, died on bail while awaiting the Malawi Supreme Court of Appeal to rule on his appeal against conviction for attempted murder. He spent six years scot-free while his alleged accomplices still rot in jail to this day.
Why, or how, do the courts seemingly love to forget outstanding matters piling in its lap?
Also in the mix are quirky injunctions that no longer offer temporary relief, but stand unchallenged and unresolved for years.
Some wealthy litigants have taken advantage of curtails and the breakdown in justice delivery to sustain illegalities and freeze laws such as the ban on thin plastics polluting the face of Malawi.
In 2024, a name and shame campaign by lawyer Alexious Kamangira jolted ordinary citizens to ask the Judiciary tough questions, including how they still call an injunction a temporary relief when it bites for eternity?
Chief Justice Rizine Mzikamanda and his lieutenants should walk the talk to ensure magistrates and judges handle cases speedily, clear the neglected backlog and restore courts’ integrity.
Sleeping bulldog
Ideally, everyone must account to someone and no one is above the law.
Those who hold judicial officers to account should not be sleeping bulldogs that see or sniff no evil, but watchdogs that bark and bite.
The Judicial Service Commission should wake up from its slumber and clean up the justice system. Otherwise the country’s youthful majority, born after 2003 when Parliament attempted to impeach three judges on trumped-up charges, only realised in 2024 that the commission exists. It must whip judges and magistrates back in line.
The commissioners must get back to work for justice to be seen to be done without integrity and a human face.
For court users, time is almost everything between justice and injustice, money and bankruptcy, life and death.
