The Mphwiyo truth, like pregnancy, shall come out

Biology can sometimes provide the best answers to social and political questions that beset humanity. Just consider how interrelated pregnancy is with the truth.

Look at this: the journey to pregnancy begins in one’s mind, if not two people, but not more than that.

Even when a sperm is shot into ovum (a female egg), marking the beginning of pregnancy, it is still two people, not three, that monopolise knowledge.

The two can decide to sit on the information. They can decide to hide the pregnancy. But that decision is temporary. You cannot hide it for long because when the pregnancy grows, like the truth, it will begin to speak for itself. It will bear the truth to be self-evident.

So sitting on the truth is great delusion not so different from hiding pregnancy. Truth, with days, grows veins; with weeks, it grows arteries; with months, it develops the limbs, the body and, in nine months, it is a full human being you cannot keep inside.

Just as some delude themselves in hiding pregnancy, Bingu wa Mutharika’s government too deluded themselves in hiding the truth about the Robert Chasowa killing two years ago.

I remember the then Southern Region Police publicist Dave Chingwalu coming to Nation Publications Limited (NPL) often to give ‘us’ different suicide letters said to have been written by Chasowa.

I remember how government wobbled in their wisdom trying to fool everybody to believe that Chasowa committed suicide.

Then a medical report came. Then revelations of Chasowa’s dealings with the police came. And they came too fast and furious that it did not take a full nine months cycle of pregnancy for Malawians to know that Chasowa was mercilessly butchered.

With the truth out, another lie emerged. A lie that Chasowa was a student activist—a hero who was advancing the cause of good governance and democracy in the country. What a murder of history, that was!

This lie was all over the media. But the truth, just like pregnancy, after being hidden for some time, grew into a full human being wanting to get out. And it did.

It transpired that Chasowa and friends were paid up agents of the DPP government—the same government that was responsible for rampant human rights abuse, for political arrogance, for the death of 20 innocent protestors, for the ailing economy, and all that.

I am saying, the truth, like pregnancy, came out and revealed that Chasowa and friends were paid by police to disturb Malawians’ right to demonstrate against increased economic and political slavery inflicted by the slavers—the DPP government.

In fact, we read, from investigative pieces, that Chasowa met his fate because of a deal gone sour: he threatened to go public if government failed to honour the monetary pledge.

Let me be clear here: there is nothing a human can do that warrants being butchered. But I protest the lie that, one, Chasowa committed suicide, and, two, he died for the cause of good governance and democracy.

And I am happy that no matter how much the authorities wanted to stifle the truth, but, like pregnancy, the truth came out.

Surely, the truth again, like pregnancy, will come out one day about the shooting of Paul Mphwiyo, the budget director.

To be honest, I am not convinced, and please underline ‘I am not convinced’, by what I have heard so far from government regarding the shooting of this man.

Word from President Joyce Banda, two days after the man was shot, was that “she knew who shot Mphwiyo.” She added that she knew they shot him because “had tightened up the treasury.”

But here are my few, and quite crude, observations that make me conclude that some people are hiding pregnancy here.

One, if it is true that Mphwiyo was shot for tightening up the Treasury, then why, within this period, we are hearing of serious financial scams from the same treasury?

We have seen how a junior civil servant, now arrested, was found with K120 million cash stashed in a mutli-million Fortuner car—something well beyond his average.

We have, just within this period, read of how ACB arrested, last Thursday, two public officers Robert Nantchito, an accounts assistant, and Alice Namata, a principal administrative officer in the Ministry of Tourism.

I am saying, just within this period, ACB revelations have shown that Nantchito entered payment vouchers amounting to K11 589 513.43 and K 8 203 518.86 in favour of two companies that did not supply any goods or services to the Ministry of Lands.

Good people, just within this period, investigations have shown that Nantchito allegedly tampered with financial information from IFMIS amounting to K73 355 924.27.

All I am trying to say is that, just within this period, the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU), with the help of the Reserve Bank of Malawi (RBM), is probing how Treasury has paid out to various companies a sum of money estimated at K600 million.

Against all these scandals at the heart of Treasury, what kind of ‘tightening treasury’ did Mphwiyo got shot for?

In fact, even when it was reported that Mphwiyo, prior to his getting shot, received death threats, it is surprising that he never reported to police. How can such a high-profile public servant receive death threats, and then sit at ease without reporting to police?

Well, these are just my observations. But with social media rife with conspiracy theories trying to solve the riddle of Mphwiyo’s story, it is almost without expression that somebody, somewhere, knows the truth but does not want to let it out. To him or her I, verily verily, say: YOU ARE HIDING PREGNACY.

It is in moments like these, where Biology provides answers to riddles that beset humanity. Mphwiyo’s story is a pregnancy that is growing. In not even nine months, it will be known—and you can trust me on this one.