House Adjouns Sine Die: Each Side Accuse Another Of Ochestrating Misconduct

The National Assembly rises Sine Die today with each side of the House accusing another for misconduct during the transaction of the business of the House.

The meeting was widely convened to discuss the Midyear Review of 2015/2016 Budget which started on Monday 22 February 2016 and has ended today Friday, 18th March 2016.

Chakwera

Leader of Opposition Lazarus Chakwera described the second meeting of 46th Session as ending "with mixed bag."

He elaborated in his speech that the meeting comes to an end at the time the country is facing severe food shortage country wide despite assurances that all is well yet ADMARC depots have become residences of women and children a development which he described as “indignity experience”.

He was equally concerned that the House conducted the business in the context of the depressing macroeconomic indicators despite promises that Government policies are working.

He also mentioned that the business was conducted with police intimidation, a reference to the arrest of his two legislatures, Jessie Kabwila and Peter Chakhwantha. But said despite all these challenges the opposition remained unshaken as this did not demoralize the intended target.

“We have reviewed and subsequently passed a revised budget amidst assurances of fiscal discipline despite reluctance to  critically look at fundamental monetary direction.

For us in the Opposition, particularly the Malawi Congress Party, our honorable members were treated dishonorably through irregular charges and as we rise we are still traumatized by the sudden demise of one of us whose body was laid to rest on Tuesday." said Chakwera

"Despite all of these we have conducted business with rare level headedness in serving Malawians who sent us to this August House to represent them.” he added

The Malawi Congress Party Leader, Chakwera, said to demonstrate desire to strengthen institutions that fight corruption the opposition during the Meeting, they brought some substantive legislative amendment through Private Members Bill, but said was disappointed that the Government side shot down their motion.

“What we have deliberated in the various sittings of this Midyear Budget Meeting, has clearly revealed the depth of the sickness that needs a strong remedy: A revert to a drawing board of Malawi that we want for our youth, the elderly and the vulnerable groups. We must go back to the drawing board because the gap between the Haves and the Have nots is widening each passing day due to inequalities everywhere and our like of exhibiting strong moral standing in favor of what I would call Belly Politics." He said

"We have honorables who have shown that they put their Kwachas over the fundamentals of running an efficient corrupt free Government. This August House will continue to face challenges in its duties if one Arm of Government fails in its mandate to reconcile all developmental policies for the common good of Malawi. We need that big picture blueprint yesterday.

As opposition we shall continue to push for a comprehensive enactment of legislation that executive has sat on from 2007-2008 Law Commission recommendations to the more recent electoral reform recommendations so that all Malawians can win and have a better future. We shall not give in to despair nor discouragement. We shall fight on until genuine transformation development, democracy and dignity are entrenched tenets in our country.” vows Chakwera who commended members of House who uphold and continue to fight for Malawi that is progressive, non corruptive and morally secure

Kasaila

When moving a motion for adjournment of the House Sine Die, Leader of the House, Francis Kasaila also accused the opposition for their incessant use of hatred speeches.

In an interview, Kasaila said throughout the business of the House the opposition have tried ways of to bring problems in the House.

He specifically pointed out at the way Opposition attempted to proceed with Private Members business. He said there was clear evidence that the opposition had ill motive to pass a proposed amendment on Corrupt Practices Act on the Authority to appoint Anti Corruption Bureau Director General and his Deputy. He said the opposition failed attempt to curtail debate just after two members had contributed was undemocratic because they wanted to ambush Government side who at that particular time were very few.

"Bills needs more views and consultatins. But they did not want that" said Kasaila

He also said rejection of some of the budget votes during the Committee of Supply was not of the best interest to Malawians.

However, Kasala was quick to describe the meeting on the outset as “generally been a success” and thanked all members for their hard work and dedication.

He said the business was transacted as planned.

Speaker of the National Assembly, Richard Msowoya said he was happy to note some improvements in the transaction of the business in the House and for cooperation and constributions

Highlights of the Meeting 

The meeting began on February 22, 2016 with Ministerial Statement by the Ministry of Agriculture, Irrigation and Water Development on Food Situation in the Country. Other statements discussed during the Meeting were Statement on Drugs and Food situation in the Hospitals on 23 February, 2016 and Statement on Youth Development Initiative in Malawi on 23 February, 2016 but was concluded on 16th March 2016. But the meeting failed to discuss Ministerial Statement from Minister of Gender, Children, Disability and Social Welfare on Rising Cases of Violence against Older Persons in Malawi.

Minister of Finance delivered 2015-2016 Midyear Budget Review Statement on Friday 26 February 2016 and the House debate began on 29th February 2016 to 7th March 2016 after which the revised Midyear Budget estimates were considered by the Committee of Supply from Monday 7th March 2016 to Friday 11 March 2016 where all the votes were passed. Ultimately the House passed 2015-2016 Midyear Revised Budget with total sum of K902 billion.

A total of 39 out of 132 questions submitted to various Government Ministries were responded to by responsible Ministers. Some questions to the President were not taken by relevant Cabinet Ministers  who were delegated by the President as the legislatures demanded the President himself to respond to those questions.

On Bills, the House passed Metrology bill on 14th March 2016 and Appropriation Amendment which was passed on 14th March 2016. But Communications Bill is at Committee Stage.

Land bill, Physical Planning bill, Land Survey bill and Customary Land bill have been referred to Committees of Women Caucus, Legal Affairs, Agriculture and Natural Resources.

Due to limited time the following bills failed to be tabled.

1. Electronic Transactions (Parliamentary Committee on Media, Information and Communications to present a Report on the Bill.)
2. Payment Systems (The Budget Committee in the day already presented a report on the bill)
3. Access to Information
4. Forestry (Amendment)
5. Malawi Housing Corporation (Amendment N.2)
6. Registered Land (Amendment)
7. Public Roads (Amendment)
8. Land Acquisition
9. Local Government (Amendment)
10. International Fund for Agricultural Development (Programme for Rural Irrigation Development) Loan (Authorisation)

House Adopts Motion To Fund Scaling Up Of Fruit Production

The Malawi National Assembly on Thursday evening, adopted motion which is asking Government to begin considering the horticulture as one of the priority areas for the Ministry of Agriculture, Irrigation and Wster Development.

This followed the motion under Private Member’s Business where the Lilongwe Central legislature, Lobin Lowe moved “That, considering that there is low production of fruits which in turn promotes high importation of fruits, and considering the importance of fruits at household level regarding source of income, food security and nutritional value, this House resolves that Government should put fruit production processing on the priority list of projects where funding is concerned for Ministry of Agriculture, Irrigation and Water Development.”

Honorable Lowe said success realised in the past interventions when Government prioritised funding for scaling up of cotton and legumes production among others has proven that prioritising also Fruit Production, Malawi will stop importing fruits from neigboring countries.

“While appreciating these efforts, we should accept, as a nation, that by sidelining fruit production for so long, our forex is being wasted through importation of apples, peaches, oranges, and several other fruits our farmers can produce if enough support is provided.” he said

He said it is very worrisome development that almost every type of fruit in local super markets and other markets are importated and said this should serve as a wakeup call that Malawi needs to invest in fruit production which will as well benefit future generation.

“It is unfortunate that our super markets are full of imported fruits and fruit juices which drain our scarce forex. What has become more painful over the recent past is that we have now started eating imported bananas from Tanzania because we have neglected ours for a long period of time until our banana is wiped by deadly banana bunchy top virus. Nobody seems to care. 

In these days, where everyone talks about climate-smart agriculture, fruit trees can no longer be ignored.”  He said while urging both Government and goodwill organization to allocate resources for fruit production

He underlined that fruit production can bring numerous benefits to farmers. He said fruit farming can serve as farmers pension, help in food security and that with good management, the industry can as well serve as alternative forex earner. He therefore, emphasized that farmers must be assisted financially to help them purchase the fruit seedlings as well as imparting them with skills and knowledge on how they can manage orchards.

Lilongwe Central legislature hinted that Malawi can take advantage of existing struggling fruit production industry as good foundation to begin supporting fruit production.

On this, he among others mentioned citrus industry in Mwanza which its production is drastically declined because of poor management of the old trees and the many mango trees that are avilable in the country.

He further mentioned number of projects that the country can as well take advantage of including Chinese Agricultural Technical Mission which imported Asian, species of fruits, PROSCARP and GTZ promotion of horticulture through Farmers Association (NAFTINA) and currently ICRAF which is assisting with nursery inspection and certification as well as Private owned Malawi Mangoes project in Salima which is growing and processing mangoes and bananas at a large scale.

“There are a lot of food security oriented NGO’s which distributes fruit trees at small scale. All these are opportunities indicating that there is good foundation already laid, such that the Government can start building on” he added

In an interview Lowe said after this motion he will try to follow up with the Ministry to find out what they will do from now on 

“If they come up with strategy I will very much appreciate” he said

During the debate on this motion in the chamber, both Government and opposition sides agreed with the legislature and there was almost consensus emphasizing the need to invest in the production of fruit production.

It was noted during the debate that in late 90’s where there were less than 6 qualified horticulturists in the country, Malawi was able to produce enough fruits for domestic consumption as well processing for example Mulanje fruit canning factory which is no more.

But Minister of Industry and Trade, Joseph Mwanamvekha said during the debate that this idea is part of what Malawi is doing and it is part of Buy Malawi Strategy to be launched this Friday by President Peter Mutharika. Equally Minister of agriculture hailed the legislature for coming up with the motion but emphasized that private sector must take a big stake in production of fruits.

ATI Tabling Fail Again; Information Minister Rushed To Hospital

Mhango: Sick 

Minister of Information rushed to the hospital and fails to present the much awaited and promised Access to Information bill.

Leader of House Francis Kasaila informed the House this Friday morning when the House resumed sitting after health break to continue debate on prioritized bills that the Minister responsible to deliver the bill was sick and has been taken to hospital.

Minister who was expected to deliver the bill is Jappie Mhango Minister of Information.

Kasaila said there was nobody to present the bill on his behalf and therefore asked the House to continue with other bills and business of the House.

However, Kasaila did not disclose the seriousness of his sickness. But said this means the bill will come in the House in May Meeting

Kasaila on Wednesday and Thursday did promise that the bill will by all means be presented between Thursday and Friday.

uptdate

When asked in an interview of how seriously ill is Mhango, Kasaila replied “That’s the information that I have, that he is not feeling oky today.

The information that I have is that the minister was coming to the House but on his way he felt that he was not feeling Oky and he had to go to the hospital so we were hoping that may be he will be here after visiting the hospital but it did not happen that way.”

Asked why they failed to allow Justice Minister or to delegate other ministers to present the bill, Kasaila explained that the Government side got report of Jappies illness during the healthy break and therefore there was no other cabinet Minister who was ready to present and answer question pertaining to the bill. He added that it was also difficult to that time to request for the bill and delegate other cabinet members.

He hoped that the bill will be back in the House in May meeting of the National Assembly

Richard Chimwendo: There was commitment 

Through several assurances Government made to have the bill tabled in the House between Thursday and today, hopes were build in the hearts of many Malawians including Legislatures themselves that the bill will by all means be tabled.

Such hopes, prompted Dowa East legislature Richard Chimwendo Banda to stand as the House was about to adjourn Sine Die to ask Speaker to get clarification why the House is about to adjourn yet the much awaited bill is not coming.

"There was commitment that the bill will come in this House" he reminded the House and made emphasis that under situation at hand Government should have used collective responsibility by delegating a cabinet minister to present the bill.

ATI Tabling Today

Malawi National Assembly is expected to debate the long awaited Access to Information Bill (ATI) today before the House rise Sine Die.

The debate on the ATI will be historical following years of waiting by many Malawians to see the bill going to parliament and debated. 

On Thursday evening before the house was adjourned for today, Francis Kasaila, Leader of House in the National Assembly made promise to the House that the business of today will prioritise the Access to Information bill together with other Land Bills.

Kasaila

“I thought I should just remind my honorable colleagues that tomorrow Government will prioritise the processing of other land bills… and there after bill number 1 of 2016 (Access to Information bill) ” 

Today, Friday, March 18th 2016 is the very last sitting day of the ongoing 2nd Meeting in the 46th Session of National Assembly and the next meeting will possibly be in May or June later this year. 

Similar promise was made on Wednesday by Kasaila in an interview after the House was adjourned early to allow members to prepare for tight business of Thursday. He indicated that since the House failed to meet for two sitting days as legislatures were mourning Mchinji West legislature, late Billy Kanjira, the business of the remaining two sitting days, Thursday and Friday will prioritise bills which among them is ATI bill.

But he did mention that most of the bills including the ATI will be passed during the Meeting of the National Assembly in May or June later this year. He explained that this is so because once the bills are introduced in the House today, will be required to go through relevant committees for thorough scrutiny and further consultations and after those committees reports back their findings to the House, then the process to debate and pass the bill will resume.

Other bills to be prioritized today are; Land Survey, Customary Land, Lands Acquisition and International Fund for Agricultural Development (Programme for Rural Irrigation Development) Loan (Authorisation).

Opposition Defeated On Amendment Motion On ACB Appointments

The National Assembly has voted ‘no’ to amend the Act on the powers to appointment the Anti Corruption Bureau (ACB) Director General and his Deputy from President to the National Assembly for the interest of the bureau's independence.

Lilongwe South West, Peter Chakhwantha presented a drafted amendment of Section 5 (1) of the Corrupt Practices Act in which he was proposing that the appointment of both the Director and Deputy Director of ACB be done by the Public Appointments Committee of Parliament based on merit and through an open recruitment process and that the Director be reporting and answerable to Parliament through the Public appointments Committee.

During the roll call vote to determine if the House adopts the amendment following divisions of votes, saw Government defeating opposition with 82 votes to 75 votes and there were 34 absentees.

“Honorable members, this means that we can not continue with other processes of the bill. Therefore, the bill Amendment has been defeated” announced Richard Msowoya Speaker of the National Assembly just after the mover, Chakhwantha reported that his motion has been shutdown

The drafted amendment came in the House today after the House some few weeks ago had adopted the amendment motion following  a victory of 75 to 67 votes by Opposition during the division to determine if the mover of the motion, Chakhwantha, should be allowed to wind up the motion and ask the House to adopt it.

But but this time around, the defeat has greatly disappointed the Opposition as Leader of Opposition reacted immediately the House was suspended for lunch break

Chakwera shaking hands with President Mutharika

“We thought we Malawians, will be the winners but we have been denied that” reacts Leader of Opposition Lazarus Chakwera in an interview further accusing Government of being “Chameleons” for changing their mind on fight against corruption as attested in this motion

While stating that their side does not consider this as a defeat, Chakwera said the battle will rage on with other motions and they will keep on fighting by bring more motions on various legislations in the House.

“They have been sitting on pieces of legislations that the Law Commission went around this country consulting and they do not want to bring it because they are afraid that the law will come after them but the long arm of the law will still come after them." He said

"It is not true that as a nation we should be telling Malawians this is what we will do if you vote for us and then when we are voted in, we decide to do the different. The reforms that they are championing have actually saying this is part of what they will do, and then to come back today and say we are not ready to do that, this country is not ready to fight corruption” said Chakwera

Lunguzi

Equally, Dedza East legislature, Juliana Lunguzi had expressed her disapointment in the House just after the motion was defeated 

“This being the House of records I want to register my disappointment that the country from the Government side has chosen to say yes to corruption” she lamented but this attracted boos from Government legislatures who also in their shouts, ordered her to resume her sit honorably

When tempers flared up following the boos, speaker, Richard Msowoya tried to put things to rest.

“The core processes of the bill has gone through, and as usual in any context one side wins the other side loses. And this has been the process if there was point in the process of the bill where you thought something procedurally went wrong you have the right to point it out but let’s not perpetrate this kind of discussion and scoring political points” said Msowoya

Throughout the general debate of the bill Government side continued to oppose the amendment of the section and it also defeated the Opposition by 76 to 73 votes during the division voting to determine if the House needed to curtail the debate to allow Chakhwantha to wind up the debate and propose that the House should adopt the drafted amendment bill.

Malawi National Assembly Consults “Green Knesset” On Environmental Friendly Tech

Malawi legislatures pose with Mr. Plot
(Third from left front row)

The Malawi National Assembly is consulting the Israel Parliament (Knesset), ‘Worlds Greenest Parliament’, to assist in establishment of efficient green technologies that would save huge sums of money used for some of its operations. 

Knesset is championing the environmental and sustainability project called “Green Knesset” which is attracting global attention as many countries are visiting Israel to learn how Knesset is saving water, paper and reducing energy consumption.

Mr. Plot (left) and Mr Chayen

A delegation led by Mr. Ronen Plot, Director General of the Knesset, and Dr. Samuel Chayen, Sustainability Coordinator for Green Knesset Project is in the country to educate its counterpart on how adopting ideas of Green Knesset Project may considerably save its annual operational costs.

Msowoya

Speaking on Wednesday at the opening of the workshop for the legislatures and head of departments on the Green Parliament and the Organization of Knesset, Speaker of the Malawi National Assembly, Richard Msowoya said considering the economic hardships and unfavorable climatic conditions the country is going through, there is need to consult Knesset on ways that Malawi Parliament can do to save some of its operational costs and conserve environment.

"At this time we need a good partner from whom we can learn a lot" said Msowoya

The Speaker said Malawi Parliament wants to reduce amount of energy, water and paper that it uses as well to transition from manual operation of other business to digital. He said transaction of daily business in the House requires more papers to print various documents including Order Paper and that it is time consuming to do 'roll call' voting during division. He therefore said Israel Parliament is the best in this area because of its well known ‘Green Knesset Project’ and can provide expertise to implement digital voting in the House.

“The first thing that we are looking at is establishing or moving towards creating our Parliament to be green. We are looking at very few items; one is the reduction of energy that we consume, second is to limit the amount of paperwork that we have in processing Parliamentary business." Explains Msowoya in an interview 

“And Israel has been voted one of the greenest Parliament in the World and the good thing about Malawi is that the Knesset is willing to work with us providing technical assistance for us to move to that direction.” He said 

Msoyowa expressed hope saying he is convinced that adopting the Green Knesset Project is a step in the right direction although the initial investment for implementation would seem to be huge.

"But over a period of time there are savings. What happens after that are savings and I think that is very important for us.” He said 

Davis Katsonga asking more about Green Knesset 

“I think as Malawians we have already seen that this environment is no longer a talk, it is real. Last year was voted one of the hottest year in the world, now, Malawians can see, we are in March and the temperatures that we are all experiencing are much higher than probably most of us have experienced before.  So the world is changing which means that we have to be paying more and more attention to the environment and doing things that protect the environment to bring it back to where it is friendly to human beings” explains Msowoya

Msowoya noted that after learning they will also seek Knesset expertise on developing strategy of how they can implement similar project.

“The most important thing is to develop something that we want to do, and once we develop we will convince those people with money it can be ministry of finance, well-wishers who can come on board and say look this is a good idea” he said

Mr. Plot

Director General of the Knesset, Mr. Ronen Plot, told the attendees in the workshop that Green Knesset Project is a very important for both savings on operational costs as well as environmental conservation.

He then assured that a similar Green Knesset in Malawi will bring a lot of benefits to the Malawi Parliament.

“You don’t have to be afraid in investing money because this is the project that you invest and after five years all the money returns. And once you implement this project you will become one of the advanced Parliament in Africa” he assured while adding that “We are coming here to lend you a hand” 

Mr. Plot said back home in 2014, Knesset started the “Green Knesset” Project with initial investment of US$ 1.7 million (NIS7 million) and the average returns from saving water and energy through solar systems is estimated at US$ 400 thousand (NIS 1.5 million) a year. He mentioned that Knesset uses 100% recycled paper, installed 4, 650 square meter solar array which has generating capacity of 450 killowatts and that the Knesset Committees serves water in pitchers instead of bottles which is preventing Knesset from generating 60 thousand plastic bottles a year.

Mr. Plot and Chayen

In an interview  Mr. Ronen Plot, said “We will start working together there is a lot of work to do and am happy to say that both sides want to cooperate  and from our point of view the sky is the limit.” He said, emphasizing “But, you don’t really need financial assistance since it this project that you invest money and the money comes back.” 

In the day there was also a signing of inter-parliamentary cooperation following the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the two Parliaments’ for cooperation.

The visiting Director General of the Knesset, Sustainability Coordinator for Green Knesset Project arrived on Tuesday and before conducting the workshop on Wednesday, he had Courtesy Call with the Right Honorable Richard Msowoya, Speaker of the Malawi National Assembly.

Mr. Plot with Lazarus Chakwera (Leader of
Opposition) 

Later in the day the delegation met with Clerk of Parliament, Fiona Kalemba and Management of Malawi National Assembly and toured some parts of Lilongwe town.

The delegation which is expected to leave the country on Friday will on Thursday have an Excursion in Salima district.

House To Debate ATI Bill Before Meeting Rise On Friday: House Adjourns Early To Allow Members Prepare For Bills

Leader of House in the National Assembly says the House will debate the Access to Information bill within the remaining two days sitting of this Meeting of the National Assembly.

Francis Kasaila made assurance in an interview on Wednesday evening after the House adjourned early to allow members to prepare for number of bills that are appearing on the Order Paper.

Kasaila said among the bills that are to be discussed on Thursday and Friday before the House rise sine die includes Access to Information bill which has been long awaited by the media and all Malawians.

“The bills are quite many, but also at the same time we have Access to Information bill” confirmed Kasaila

“All those we would want to process them and for sure most of them would be required to go through committees because that is where members would consult relevant stakeholders and get their views… and there after we will  have a consensus and proceed with the processing when we meet again around in May.”

He however, failed to divulge more if the bill will be the first item on the Government business on Thursday but has confirmed that between Thursday and Friday the bill will be among the list of Bills that will be presented in the House.

“It will come as I said between tomorrow and Friday, it may not be necessarily be second (after Land Bills) because it depends on whether the spokespersons will be ready tomorrow for that. We will try and bring in those that are ready quickly and bring those bills on the floor, deal with them and proceed” he said 

The National Assembly on Wednesday evening was adjourned early as the Leader of House wanted members to prepare for Fourteen bills that are appearing on order paper so that House adjourns sine die on Friday with more bills tackled.

“Honorable Deputy Speaker, since the House is rising this Friday I berg to move that the House adjourns early to allow members to prepare for the bills” moved Leader of House, Francis Kasaila 

Kasaila in his request to the Second Deputy Speaker, Clement Chiwaya, observed that there is a backlog of bills that needs to be tackled before the House rises on Friday. 

The business items of the House accumulated following two sitting days the House failed to meet as members went to attend the funeral of one of their legislatures from Mchinji. Kasaila defended the early adjournment saying for the sake of progress, it was necessary to allow members to prepare for the bills as programme for the next two days will be tight therefore members need to consult widely on the bills so that together with their party spokespersons they should participate.

Bills appearing on the order paper are

1. Electronic Transactions (Parliamentary Committee on Media, Information and Communications to present a Report on the Bill.)
2. Payment Systems (The Budget Committee in the day already presented a report on the bill)
3. Access to Information
4. Land bill
5. Physical Planning
6. Forestry (Amendment)
7. Malawi Housing Corporation (Amendment N.2)
8. Land Survey
9. Registered Land (Amendment)
10. Public Roads (Amendment)
11. Customary Land
12. Lands Acquisition
13. Local Government (Amendment)
14. International Fund for Agricultural Development (Programme for Rural Irrigation Development) Loan (Authorisation)