LILONGWE-(MaraviPost)-The Malawi Parliament on Tuesday dismissed the evidence that Minister of Labour, Youth, Sports and Manpower Development Francis Kasaila provided for allegations he made that some Malawians died at Nsanje Prison during Malawi Congress Party (MCP) regime.
On Friday November 24, Second Deputy Speaker Clement Chiwaya ruled that Kasaila should bring evidence to the House on the allegations made during his contribution to President Peter Mutharika’s opening speech in which he said people died in Nsanje due to atrocities of the MCP regime.
Said Kasaila: “Let me remind those who are not old that the only thing that we remember about MCP is the prison that they used to kill people in. This is a known fact that the prison in Nsanje was used to kill so-called enemies of the MCP that time.”
Giving her verdict on the matter, First Deputy Speaker Esther Mcheka Chilenje said it was hard to believe the authenticity of the evidence as it was only brought on a sheet of paper without signatures and ownership.
Chilenje observed that the alleged evidence would have carried weight if the information were coming from government departments such as prison. Therefore, she said the evidence cannot be admitted in the House
“It is, therefore, not clear who authored it and whether the honourable minister can state with certainty the document was authored by him. Secondly, the authenticity of the purported evidence is questionable, the paper contains a list of names of people who were allegedly arrested for various reasons and who allegedly died in custody.
“There is no indication of the source of this information. As it is, there is no evidence that these people actually existed”,Chilenje said.
There has been mad slinging between the opposition MCP and government benches in the current sitting of Parliament.
