Msowoya on ceasefire mission—MCP
The Malawi Congress Party (MCP) has said its vice-president Richard Msowoya is on a reconciliation undertaking hence his association with members judged to be working against party president Lazarus Chakwera.
MCP second deputy secretary general Eisenhower Mkaka said Chakwera preached ceasefire at the national executive committee (NEC) meeting last month and the party hoped Msowoya was doing that in the same spirit.
Kaliwo at a rally last week in Mzimba
The remarks come after Msowoya conducted a political rally in Mzimba last Sunday, which was also attended by the party’s embattled secretary general Gustav Kaliwo and fired spokesperson Jessie Kabwila.
Kaliwo and Kabwila are some of the party’s members who have been agitating for an emergency convention, a development some leaders feel is aimed at bringing disarray in the party.
Msowoya’s decision to hold a rally alongside the two has raised eye brows with some commentators opining he is backing calls for an early convention.
But in an interview, Mkaka played down assertions of ‘revolt’, saying the party believes Msowoya conducted the rally in the spirit of resolving the issues that have dogged the party for some months now.
“If his motivation to hold a rally with people who have been agitating for convention and seemingly working against the party president was reconciliation as our president preached during our last NEC meeting then fair and good, but if it was something different then that’s unfortunate,” said Mkaka.
He said Msowoya proceeded to the North immediately after the NEC meeting to reconcile two opposing sides and “we trust in Mzimba he was trying to advance the same agenda by bringing on board people who differed with the party leadership in general.”
Msowoya, who is also Speaker of the National Assembly and legislator for Karonga Nyungwe, was not available for comment.
But during his rally in Mzimba he focused on his interest to partner Chakwera as his running mate in the 2019 Tripartite Elections.
His declaration came barely a week after Lower Shire political giant Mohammed Sidik Mia, who is widely believed to be in the run for Chakwera’s running mate in 2019, was welcomed into the country’s oldest political party.
The Kaliwo faction has doubted Chakwera’s call for reconciliation, arguing that it was not in good faith because he took them to court after announcing the convention dates. n
