Dealing with corruption in Nyasaland

There is no doubt that many people regard corruption as an evil that ought to be rooted out of the public sphere. We have laws that are designed to deal with corruption so that it is eradicated or removed from our society. However, each of the governments that have been at the helm of this country has been accused of being corrupt. Many of us can say very little about the corruption that went on during the MCP era. This does not mean that there was no corruption then. We still have an opinion that former president Kamuzu Banda engaged in self-enrichment exercises through his conduct of considering the party, government and himself as the same. What belonged to the government belonged to the party and belonged to Kamuzu. The demarcation line among these three entities never existed.

When we move to the United Democratic Front (UDF), many people are less generous in terms of how corruption was embraced. Fairly or unfairly, the vice (corruption) is said to have been perfected in the UDF era. If people do question whether Cashgate started under Joyce Banda or under President Bakili Muluzi, one may have to just look at the Kalonga Stambuli case when he was incarcerated at Chichiri Prison by the Bakili Muluzi presidency. My story is not being told for the first time. Kalonga’s problem was that he was being accused of having embezzled government money. How had he done that? There was money from a foreign government to the Ministry of Water Development. This money was then deposited in the defunct Finance Bank instead of being kept by the Reserve Bank. Kalonga was the sole signatory of this account and once in a while, the ruling group would request to dip into this pot for personal and party reasons. Lo and behold, at some point the leadership understood that Kalonga had also been dipping his hand into the cookie jar without permission. So they decided enough was enough and Kalonga had to pay for his curiosity. So he was arrested and charged with some crime bordering on theft by public servant. Kalonga argued the arrest was politically motivated. In any case, he challenged to be brought before a court of law so that he be accorded the opportunity to spill the beans.  He asked rhetorical questions. How come government had opened a bank account at Finance Bank? How come the account from which he was being accused of having abused had only one signatory, i.e. himself? Where had some of the money (apart from that which he was being accused of having stolen) gone to? As far as Kalonga was concerned, a reasonable person would see the money trail entering the gates of Sanjika.

When I heard the story that Kalonga was telling about the leadership of this country, I did not believe it fully. Be he reassured me: you will see what happens to this case. Then I saw what happened to this case. The case was dropped and Kalonga Stambuli walked free and left for Europe.