When job-seekers go Awol

When Malawians went to the polls last year, it was not just a matter of fulfilling a political procedure. It was about choosing councillors and members of Parliament to represent their aspirations in decision-making.

Slightly over a year on, some elected office-bearers have come under fire for forsaking the people they are supposed to serve.

“They go to Parliament and council meetings to speak in our name, but I do not know where they get the power to say things without consulting and briefing the people they claim to serve,” says Ntchachi villager Precious Nyirenda.

In the mountainous Nkhata North West setting, alienation is deepening.

At Chigonaazungu Primary School, community members spoke of a raw deal as usual. To get there, a narrow, rocky road that branches off Mzuzu-Nkhata Bay tarmac at Kavuzi disappears into bushy hills and valley dominated by thatched huts, cassava fields and banana plantations.

According to village headman Materials Kumwenda, Chigonaazungu was a stopover for natives carrying early Scottish missionaries on stretchers between the historic mission stations on Livingstonia Plateau in Rumphi North and the shoreline Bandawe in Nkhata Bay South.

“When we were a British colony, our fathers used to carry European missionaries on their shoulders because there were no cars,” says Kumwenda.

The colonial trails were a vivid sign that constructing a road in the remote locality was no rocket science, he said.

Five decades and one year following Malawi’s independence, the locals are still traveling the rough road ‘stretchering’ the sick in a chair to Kavuzi where they hitch public transport to health facilities at Mpamba, Nkhata Bay Boma and Mzuzu. Those who cannot afford the ‘extra cost’ walk on, spending up to four hours to get to the life-serving facilities.

“We are still shouldering our people to the hospital like our forefathers did with the pioneer missionaries,” said Kumwenda just two days after government expended a K300 million kitty on the 51st independence Anniversary at Kamuzu Stadium on July 6.

After the party, Chogonaazungu woke up no better. The road was still a matter of life or death. Lucy Chirwa of Kajilwe Village talked about patients dying on the way to the tarmac and schools being unreachable when the river overflows.

“The road is a big issue. Everyone should be worried about it,” she said.

The unpaved road cries for bridges at Kavuzi, Mchezi and Kajilwe village, a barrier to marketing of crops which flourish in the area and access to education.

James Nyirenda’s son almost drowned after she slipped into a river on the path to Kalowa Primary School, said the parent.

In their talking, the rocky road splitting the slopes easily morphs into a metaphor of the country’s journey since the reintroduction of multiparty politics.

“This road!” says Nyirenda. “People come with promises and vanish without doing anything.”

But Citizen Voice Forum chairperson Carver Chiumia expounds what Nyirenda says parables.

“This road is worsening illiteracy and poverty in the community. Our MP and councillor know this. They talked about it during campaign, but we don’t know what is happening because they stopped visiting us,” says Chiumia.

The head of the citizen forum spearheaded by the National Initiative for Civic Education (Nice) to offer Malawians a chance to take part in public life and a voice on issues affecting them.

According to him, Nkhata Bay North West MP Comodius Nyirenda vanished to Lilongwe soon after winning the seat last year.

“Similarly, councillor Hastings Mkandawire, who was living in the community when he stood for Kavuzi Ward, relocated to Mzuzu after emerging victorious,” he said.

In the words of James Kamanga, the decried vacuum has left the area is “stranded with no one to shoulder their concerns”.

In an interview, both the MP and the councillor claimed they visit the area periodically to meet with community leaders and development committees.

The legislator urged the constituents against ‘seeking personal gains’ as he is striving to deliver ‘public goods’.

He reckoned: “The concerns are misplaced. I am still working hand-in-hand with my constituents. The focus is on sustainable development, not hand-outs. So far, I’ve done 13 projects, including construction of a staff office at Chigonaazungu Primary School.”

At Chigonaazungu, where some pupils learn in a thatched shed with no walls due to shortage of classrooms, the so-called office stands in a pitiful state. Its roof was blown off. ActionAid, which constructed modern blocks at the rural school, donated iron sheets and nails. Presently, it lies with no doors and windows. Its plaster is battered. It is seemingly falling apart just when reconstruction is said to be underway.

In an interview, headteacher Caleb Nkhata said: “The MP sent some cement and building materials for the office on June 6, but nobody can claim to have constructed the office yet.”

The stand-off sums up the mood in the fragile constituency that no MP has ever retained since 1994.

The locals say MPs come and go—and Nyirenda might as well be on the way out.

Interestingly, the parliamentarian is aware his constituency has become a case study of how Malawians use the ballot as the final bullet after Parliament in 1995 repealed Section 64 of the Constitution which afforded them powers to recall underperforming MPs.

“The people are demanding, but I will not allow them to derail my dream. What matters is not what they are saying, but what we are doing on the ground,” he said.

But the locals say the elected officials only need to be more accountable to the people to survive the chop.

“They should show voting them was not a miss by creating room for dialogue. We deserve a chance to spell out our priorities and hear what they are doing for us wherever they go,” said Esther Milanzi.

Village head Jupilo nodded in agreement.

“We need to walk together, with elected officials respecting the views of their people whether we voted for them or not.”

Actually, Anderson Manda went graphic.

“If a husband and wife start sleeping in separate bedrooms soon after wedding officiation, is the marriage OK?” he wondered.

He likened MPs and councillors are people’s servants, saying: “We must send them and they must update us regularly.”

In an interview, Group Village Head Chamaowa, whom both the MP and councillor as the witness of their inroads in the area, thanked Nice Public Trust for empowering the people to hold their elected leaders accountable.

The traditional leader explained: “It’s true we have issues with our leaders. Our MP was leaving in Lilongwe before the polls, but we haven’t seen him meeting with people lately. Similarly, the councillor has relocated to Mzuzu. But I have summoned them to explain their silence.”

Councillor Mkandawire won the votes after harnessing the waters of Kavuzi River to generate electricity for Chimbininga Village. The project has won him global accolades, including US President Barack Obama’s prestigious Mandela Washington Fellowship for African Leaders Initiative.

But the 10kilowatt power project, which won him a $25 000 grant for a business enterprise with a community empowerment package, may be his undoing.

The so-called forsaken people also accuse them of not fulfilling his promise to establish a youth training centre in the area.

When asked, he said: “My plan was to install the machine in the ward. I go there every weekend. I have a home. But I had to shift to Mzuzu because the traditional leaders were delaying to give me land for the energy training centre.”

The machine have been planted at Mzuzu CCAP Garage, but he insisted the decision was not made for personal gain but to wait for land.

But for now, village head Kadoko pointed to betrayal.

He warned: “It is ironic that the people who grew up here, lived with us and frequented us to ask for votes have vanished just like that. It is betrayal and they are digging their own grave.”