BLANTYRE-(MaraviPost)— Justice Micheal Mtambo has slapped for former minister of justice Ralph Kasambara with 13 years jail term on the count of conspiracy to murder former budget director Paul Mphwiyo.
Kasambara’s fellow convicts in the case, Pika Manondo and McDonald Kumwembe, have been sentenced to 15 years imprisonment for attempted murder and 11 years for conspiracy to murder Mphwiyo.
The two will serve a total of 26 years in prison since their sentences will run consecutively.
Kasambara was convicted of conspiring to murder Mphwiyo alongside former Malawi Defence Force (MDF) soldier Macdonald Kumwembe and businessperson Pika Manondo who faced a separate charge of attemptingto murder the former budget director.
Mphwiyo’s shooting at the gate of his Area 43 residence in Lilongwe is believed to have exposed Cashgate, the plunder of public resources at Capital Hill.The case, which started in 2013, has been marred with hurdles ranging from application for recusals from defence, defence being thrown back into jail for contempt of court and other excuses.
Meanwhile, the defence is asking for bail in view of the fact that the three are appealing against conviction but Director of Public Prosecution (DPP) is objecting to bail.
So, is this justice at last or justice denied? I tend to favor the former. No one has ever lost such a case who was accused of a crime as heinous as this one and was well represented, even better, by many commentators opinions – better represented than the prosecution. Even in Kamuzu days, the court of public opinion knew when they smelled trumped up charges and this one – naaaaa – my granny in Kampanikiza Village kept on saying “imwe anyamata a masiku ano – please do not steal like aka kabava kaku Nkhata ka Sambala ka”. No matter how much I tried to convince her that we in Malawi now believe in “innocent until proven guilty” – she said – aaaa then sono that’s why mwawana wakusambira kuba waka.
She was totally convinced of the eventual verdict and I suspect she has heard of it and is ululating. She believes, perhaps rightly so, that by putting Kasambala in the slummer, many would be cashgaters will think twice and also she totally hates that Kasambala represented all the bad people that have destroyed the moral campus of Malawians including Muluzi and his cohorts, Bingu and one person I do not think I know – she says he was the kingpin mafia of Malawi corruption and died in prison. I wonder who that was – but was Kasambala’s client. May be some of you know
Poor Raphael Kasambara. You live by the sword you die by the sword