Kamlepo speaks on his kidnap

Embattled Rumphi East legislator Kamlepo Kalua has broken the silence on his abduction, accusing the police of staging the whole plot and misinforming the public that he faked his kidnap.

In an interview at his house in Blantyre’s Nkolokosa Township yesterday, Kalua, who is also People’s Party (PP) third vice-president and vice-chairperson of Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee (PAC), also laughed off the purported police preliminary investigation report, arguing that within 24 hours, the law enforcers could not have done any investigations to substantiate their assertions.

He said: “I feel I am OK. How did it [the abduction] happen? I was in Chileka, inspecting my construction project. The police claim I was last seen there [in Chileka] three months ago. That is not true as I have to regularly go to my place to pay the workers. These workers need to be paid so that they use the money as transport to their homes. If I went there three months ago so, who is paying them?

“Again, the police are just contradicting themselves when they say they took me to Naperi Hospital. The police knew I was at Seventh Day Adventist Hospital [Blantyre Adventist Hospital-BAH], but they preferred to lie.

“The very same police claimed [then Polytechnic student] Robert Chasowa had committed suicide and showed a suicide note to the whole country. The very same Chasowa whom Dr [Charles] Dzamalala said he was killed.

“And they [police] told professor Boniface Dulani that he was evading tax and impounded all the computers after he had done that research [indicating that President Peter Mutharika was least popular].

“If I was found dead, they [police] could have said I committed suicide because I was running away from evading tax.”

During the interview, Kalua, wearing a black checked shirt, a pair of black trousers and brown shoes, looked calm and composed. However, he was not the usual militant Kalua.

He said he was grateful to God that he is alive.

In the meantime, Kalua said, his priority is to travel to South Africa for further medical examination because, he said, he was not sure about what might have been put in his body through food or otherwise.

He said he cannot rule out politics in the whole saga, especially the coincidence with the joint Malawi Revenue Authority (MRA) and Malawi Police Service (MPS) raid of his house and that of his son on tax evasion charges. In the process, MRA and MPS impounded two vehicles which have since been returned.

On Sunday, pictures of Kalua dumped near Kwacha Roundabout in Blantyre went viral on the social media. He was seen tied on the wrists and legs, clean shaven and in visibly clean clothes with a coat over his shoulders. The pictures stirred debate, with some wondering whether he was really abducted.

In response yesterday, Kalua said: “If I was abducted and kept in a clean room, will my clothes look dirty? If I shaved yesterday would I look like this today?

“They [police] staged the abduction to make it look staged. Even today, I haven’t taken a bath, but can you notice that I haven’t showered?

A medical report from BAH, which The Nation has seen, indicates that Kalua had high blood pressure and that marks of being tied were visible on the wrists.

The assessment, conducted by Dr Aziz Sherry on May 7 2017, also shows that Kalua was “a stressed patient who needed further follow up”. However, his blood test on heart and sugar were normal, it said.

Prior to visiting BAH, Kalua was given a reference letter by Soche Police Station. The police letter, dated May 7, reads: “The bearer of this document is reported to have been abducted on 30/04/2017 and was found dumped at Kwacha.

“He is being referred to you for both medical examination and treatment. Kindly furnish us with your findings for our record purposes.”

Reacting to the developments, PP acting president Uladi Musa said the alleged abduction of the MP was sad and a sign of growing insecurity in the country.

He said he was yet to speak to Kalua. He said PP would also issue a statement “at an appropriate time”.

Commenting on the issue, Speaker of the National Assembly Richard Msowoya said he had requested Minister of Information and Communications Technology Nicholas Dausi to furnish his office with details surrounding the alleged abduction.