Malawi’s Anti-Corruption Bureau has arrested Energy Minister Newton Kambala for attempting to bribe officials in a fuel-purchase deal.
The anti-corruption Police said its investigations revealed that the minister had “attempted to influence” the National Oil Company of Malawi to award multi-million dollar fuel supply contracts to three companies.
Also arrested was President Lazarus Chakwera’s senior advisor, Chris Chaima Banda. Kambala is chairman of vice president Saulos Chilima’s United Transformation Movement, a coalition partner of Chakwera’s Malawi Congress Party. Energy Minister Kambala is the first sitting minister to be arrested in over 20 years and the second to lose his cabinet post this year.
In a crackdown on corruption, President Chakwera fired his Labour Minister Ken Kandodo in April for diverting $800 worth of Covid-19 funds to pay for a government trip to South Africa. He also arrested 19 government officials for fraudulent use of funds meant to fight the coronavirus.