By Gerald Chavez Kampanikiza
On August 24th, 2021, Henry Kachaje reported for work as the new Chief Executive Officer of Malawi Energy Regulatory Authority ( MERA) after being offered a three-year contract to be at the helm of the parastatal.
In no time there were complaints about his appointment and three days later, the Parliamentary Committee through its chairperson, Wrote Mera board Chairperson Leonard Chikadya demanding an explanation on how Kachaje was appointed. That was followed with another request by Forum for National Development who requested the Anti-Corruption Bureau ( ACB) to investigate on the same alleging that Kachaje does not possess the required Educational and Professional qualifications.
On November 3rd, 2021, PAC summoned MERA board Chairperson Mr Chikadya to a meeting to answer questions on the process leading to Kachaje’s appointment as MERA CEO.
MERA board short-listed eight applicants including Kachaje from the long list of 101 who were invited for interviews from where Kachaje emerged the best interviewee.
Kachaje replaced Collins Magalasi, who served as MERA’s CEO until November 22 last year.
The Office of the Ombudsman then received a written complaint from one Richard Chapweteka who is now one of the commissioners of MEC alleging that he suffered injustice in the manner in which the Malawi Energy Regulatory Authority ( MERA) conducted the recruitment process for the position of Chief Executive Officer ( CEO) , to which he had applied for.
The office of the Ombudsman then announced that today, Wednesday November 10th, 2021, it will release a report on the recruitment of Henry Kachaje as Chief Executive Officer of Malawi Energy Regulatory Authority ( MERA).
The report was titled” Curbing Impunity” into Kachaje’s appointment.
10 minutes into the reading of the report by Ombudsman Grace Malera at her office in Lilongwe, she was served with an injunction restraining her from proceeding with the release of the report. Emotional Grace shared the report even before the start of the briefing.
She received it and didn’t proceed though she indicated that some stakeholders including the Mera boss have been served with ombudsman’s report.
So, the question is why did MERA obtained an injunction???
According to information gathered by #GCKCAMERAS, the ombudsman Grace Malera is an interested party in this case as she is one of the people that applied for the post of MERA’s CEO. Her name appears on the bottom of 101 applicants. In as far as justice is concerned Malera was not supposed to preside over this issue to avoid conflict of interest.
Malera was humbly asked by the Board of MERA when she summoned them to recuse herself from this case as her investigation won’t be bias because she is an interested party who is still bitter that the board left her even on the list of shortlisted candidates.
The board told her that she was not qualified to preside over the investigation of the complaint, but this didn’t yield anything as she felt this was time to play her role against the board for not considering her for the job.
Against this request the ombudsman proceeded with the report ignoring the request and that’s the more reason that MERA obtained an injunction for an independent investigation to be done without her involvement. Further Kachaje has all the required qualifications for the job.
