MEC’s Kunje, driver take plea, remanded to prison
Malawi Electoral Commission (MEC) commissioner Linda Kunje, who handed herself to police on Monday after the Eastern Region Police Headquarters in Zomba launched a manhunt for her, has pleaded not guilty to charges the State levelled against her.
The commissioner and her driver John Tewesa are accused of obstructing President Lazarus Chakwera’s convoy when the President was travelling from Blantyre to Zomba on Thursday.
Appearing before Zomba Senior Resident Magistrate’s Court yesterday, the State through Eastern Region Police prosecution officer Josephine Chigawa charged Kunje with reckless and negligent act, contrary to Section 246(a) of the Penal Code as read with Section 21 (c) of the Penal Code. Tewesa was charged with reckless and negligent act.
But both Kunje and Tewesa, who was arrested last Friday, pleaded not guilty to the charges.
Section 246 (a) of the Penal Code stipulates that any person who, in a manner so rash or negligent as to endanger human life or to be likely to cause harm to any person, drives any vehicle or rides on any public way, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor.
On the other hand, Section 21 (c) states that when an offence is committed, every person who aids, or abets another person in committing the offence is deemed to have taken part in committing the offence, and to be guilty of the offence and may be charged with actually committing it.
Eastern Region Police spokesperson Joseph Sauka in an interview said the lawyer representing the two, Chimwemwe Kalua, applied for bail after the two pleaded not guilty, arguing that Kunje is a public figure who cannot escape bail conditions.
But in response, Chigawa argued that Kunje is a flight risk and can interfere with State witnesses; hence, she should not be granted bail.
Senior resident magistrate Helen Kachala reserved bail ruling for Thursday (tomorrow).
In an interview after the court proceeding, Kalua confirmed that his clients will remain in custody pending the bail ruling by the court.
He said: “The State claimed that my clients will interfere with witnesses, but the so-called witnesses’ names are not given. I don’t believe that commissioner Kunje would run away from trial.”
Sauka stated in a separate interview that Kunje has been remanded at Domasi Prison while her driver is at
Zomba Prison.
Section 123 (1) of the Road Traffic Act, stipulates that “when a vehicle in which the President is travelling is in motion on any road, and is accompanied by an escort, the driver of every other vehicle on that road shall, as soon as the leading vehicle of the escort is within such a distance as to be easily recognisable, draw his vehicle as is reasonably practicable to the side of the carriageway and shall stop such vehicles until the vehicle in which the President is travelling and its escort have passed”.
Sauka told The Nation on Monday that Kunje defied traffic police orders four times to stop her vehicle and pave the way for the presidential convoy between Six Miles and Namadzi in Zomba and Chiradzulu as she is reported to have been travelling to Blantyre.
Last month Kunje told the local media that both her and her fellow DPP sponsored MEC commissioner Jean Mathanga were not getting their honoraria since their reappointment as MEC commissioners in June this year.
In his parliamentary address on September 10 this year, Chakwera said he would not send letters of appointment to the two commissioners because they were found incompetent by the Public Appointments Committee of Parliament as well as the High Court and Malawi Supreme Court of Appeal.
In 2012, police arrested a Nkhoma Mission Hospital driver in Lilongwe for allegedly defying orders to give way to former president Bingu wa Mutharika and charged him with an offence of failing to stop for a presidential convoy.
