People’s Tribunal

Indict aides for embarrassing the President

Dear Justice Mbadwa,

I, Clement Katanya, chairperson of the transparency and accountability committee in my village Makobola, has been compelled to write you after hearing that our President was left embarrassed after his aides misplaced some of his ‘travelling bags’ and other paraphernalia he was taking to a very important meeting abroad.

Honourable Mbadwa, I remember at the onset of your tribunals, you said and if I may be allowed to quote you, you stated that yours “is just a citizen court that looks at issues affecting the citizens and whose powers to dispense justice is defined by public interest.”

It is for that reason that I have decided to write you, seeking guidance first on what charges we can lay on the President’s ‘boys’ who failed to do their job.

In our village, the shame of the village head is the humiliation of an entire village. We, therefore, cannot allow those aides to disgrace the President and Malawians in general.

The President has always been doing a favour to the boys by giving them jobs to carry bags and arrange things for him, because if he had wanted, he would have carried his own suitcases and bags. Why not?

We have heard even that his colleague from America carries his own umbrella and you think ours let them handle the umbrella for fun? No, it is to give the ‘boys’ something to do. Otherwise they would have been loafing in the village by now.

I might have digressed my Lord, but when boys refuse to carry the chief’s bag in my village, they are asked to bring a goat to the chief, but misplacing luggage of a chief attracts a fine of a head of cow.

I know your court doesn’t handle such scenarios. Should we sue them for conduct likely to cause breach of peace or gross negligence? The aides’ conduct actually from our village understanding breached the peace of mind of many Malawians who were worried what would happen now that the luggage was missing.

Is the President’s luggage a protected emblem like our national flag? If that is the case, then mishandling the luggage would be a serious offence, wouldn’t it be? I also look at the wrong impression that the aides’ conduct created. They made some people conclude that the luggage was deliberately misplaced to create an impression that the country should buy a presidential jet, something the President never said.

My Lord, isn’t this false impression they created the same as uttering a false document? Guide me my Lord. I really want to take to task these irresponsible boys.

Looking forward to your reply,

Clement Katanya,

Chairperson Makobola Transparency and Accountability Committee

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