High Drama in court as the former country’s Budget Director Paul Mphwiyo‘s conspiracy and murder case resumed on Wednesday, September 23 at High Court in the capital Lilongwe. MacDonald William Kumwembe the first accused, started defending himself against the charge.
The Wednesday’s court proceedings started with a bang as Judge Mike Mtambo revoked Ralph Kasambara’s bail on conspiracy charges due to perceived security reasons on the part of the judge himself and delaying tactics by Kasambara and Kumwembe’s applications that the judge must rescues himself as was related to Mary Kachale, The Director of Public Prosecution.
During the afternoon cross-examination, Kumwembe expressed surprise to the charges against him saying he knew Mphwiyo from way back in 1999 as a friend and that Mphwiyo was a Personal Assistant to the late Dumbo Lemani.
He said Mphwiyo lied to the court that didn’t know him while all along have been friends saying he (Kumwembe) could not dire planning to kill his old friend.
“As a former trained soldier if given a gun to shoot at the range Mphwiyo was at that fateful night, I don’t think I could miss a target with a bullet. So, it means the one who attempted to kill Mphwiyo was not fully trained personnel to use the gun like in my case”, Kumwembe
challenged the court that was not married but remained single.
Kumwembe also accused the Prosecutor Chilinda the one who carried early investigation into his arrest and police sentence recordings saying that what he told the court earlier of him being convicted for robbery charges in Machinga was not true but rather efforts to tarnish his image.
To justify this claim of not convicted by any court, Kumwembe tendered a clearance letter from his former employer- The Malawi Defense Force which was led in the court that he was not once convicted by any court in the country.
“The reason why Chilinda testified against me with false information based on his boss when he came to know about him (Chilinda) for being involved in an illegal gun business which he was confronted. I told his bosses about his misconduct as that time I was working with the secret government agency which I noticed that his act was compromising the country’s security.
“Thus, based on these arguments, Chilinda still have issues with me as one time he warned me that will do everything possible to deal with me completely, therefore, no wonder he took this case a aground to achieve his goal”, said Kumwembe who runs accessories business in Zomba.
However, he failed to produce details of lodges’ names where he spent the night in Mozambique on this fateful day per claims saying as a foreigner in that country could not bother keep on memorizing names of rest houses, guest houses, lodges and bars.
“My lord, on this fateful day, I was outside the country, in Mozambique as my business demands travelling. However, it wasn’t in my mind of keeping the names where I spent a night. So, there is no basis that my passport stamp was tampered with due to this minor issue of unable to remember the name of bar was relaxing”, wondered Kumwembe.
Thus, Judge Mtambo adjourned the case to October 13, 2015 for further cross-examining of Kumwembe and Pika Manondo the third accused who was told to get his lawyer ready as Wapona Kita stopped representing him for the case.
Four days have been remitted for the court to finish the cross-examination proceedings from October 13 to 16, 2015. Currently, Kasambara is now on remand at Maula Prison in the capital Lilongwe upon his bail being revoked, Manondo still enjoys the bail bond while Kumwembe will continue in prison as he serves a contempt of court-four months’ sentence.
The shooting of Mphwiyo on September 13, 2013 was a genesis of cashgate cases as billions of Kwachas were stolen during President Joyce Banda regime which led to arrests and conviction of some government officials and politicians who took part in the plunder.
