Business came to a standstill at Parliament building this morning as Malawi Congress Party (MCP) Members of Parliament on several occasion disrupted the State of the Nation address by President Professor Arthur Peter Mutharika.

It all started when Clerk of Parliament Fiona Kalemba gave Mutharika a floor to start unpacking what is in the SONA.

MCP MPs led by its secretary general Eisenhower Mkaka started chanting anti-Mutharika songs forcing the newly elected Speaker of Parliament Catherine Gotani Hara to call for peace in the house but this did not yield any results.

Hara then summoned a meeting with political party leadership; DPP, MCP and UDF to seek for their intervention on that and advise their supporters to calm down.

But the plea by the Speaker did not yield any results as MCP supporters continued. The development left the Speaker with no option but to invoke standing order 105 on two MPs.

This did not please MCP MPs who resorted in walking out of Parliament. As they were walking out some were head chanting ‘Wakuba…! Wakuba Peter!…Wakuba Peter…!.

Speaking to the press after walking out of Parliament Mkaka said that they cannot listen to Mutharika because he is an illegitimate leader.

“We are here to pass the provisional budget and not to listen to Mutharika. We do not recognize him,” he said.

Mutharika then proceeded with his speech by saying today Malawi has seen democracy at its best.

He then accused the opposition of hiring the Al-Shabab to take over reign of power.