Constituents boo their legislator

Lilongwe City South West MP Wells Vinandi Adam was on Friday booed by his constituents for allegedly failing to make himself available since his election in May 2009.

But the legislator has dismissed the claims, arguing he has been to the constituency several times.

The boos nearly marred an otherwise successful meeting at Kafulu Primary School in Malawi’s capital, Lilongwe, where scores of youths gathered for a ministerial address.

While Minister of Youth Development  Sports Symon Vuwa Kaunda and DPP campaign director Ken Zikhale Ng’oma seemed to be enjoying their time with the 200-plus youths, Vinandi, who arrived at the venue of the meeting about 20 minutes late, attracted the first booing as soon as he entered the hall. More boos and unpleasant comments followed when Vuwa Kaunda introduced the MP to the audience.

Claimed one youth in the audience: “The problem is that our MP is never available. Most of us have never seen him. We just see him on television in Parliament.”

But in an interview after the function, Vinandi said the booing was not an indication of a sour relationship between himself and his constituents.

“I don’t know why they are doing that and what they are complaining about. I have been holding rallies in the constituency. I even had a rally with the President in this area. So no one can claim that I am not available in the constituency.”

During the function, Vuwa Kaunda asked vendors across Malawi to take advantage of the Youth Enterprise Development Fund (Yedef) loans to establish, develop and grow their businesses as a way of participating in the economic development of the country.