Malawi politician Kamlepo Kalua once a failed presidential candidate has failed to Garner the attention he seeks with a history of outlandish statements and proclamations.
Kamlepo Kalua hails from Rumphi District. He ran in the 1999 presidential election, where he finished in third place with 1.4% of the total national vote.
Kamlepo Kalua was until around 1992 and 1994 unknown to many Malawians. However, while many Malawians stayed put afraid of tin pot dictator Kamuzu Banda, he agitated for change without fear of repercussion. Kamlepo Kalua and his comrades in arms were on Channel Africa, as the Chinyanja Service of the SABC was then called, taunting the once mighty Kamuzu Banda, the once-feared MYP and other notorious institutions almost every evening.
He once criticized the naming of a road connecting Blantyre to Mozambique after Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe, calling him “an outright dictator”.
The latest controversy started when in Parliament on Tuesday, Minister of Agriculture George Chaponda described Rumphi East Member of Parliament (MP) Kamlepo Kalua’s speech as always a regionalist.
Chaponda reaction follows Kamlepo’s remarks on the disbursement of treadle pumps to the districts that the ministry of agriculture has underscores. According to the minister’s report, southern districts such as Phalombe, Nsanje as well as Mulanje will get a big number of treadle pumps than Chitipa and Karonga.
However, this did not go well with the Rumphi east MP who described it as unbiased.
Kamlepo Kalua responded to the minister of Agriculture George Chaponda, saying he has no moral ground to criticize him as he left the country during the Kamuzu Banda dictatorship when brave Malawians stayed home to fight for multiparty rule.
Kamlepo Kalua has proclaimed that Peoples Party led by Joyce Banda stands a good chance of bouncing back to power in 2019 elections.
He said this at a political rally he addressed in Karonga that PP can win the 2019 election because failure by the DPP to deliver will work in favour of the PP.
