Malawi Vice President, Khumbo Kachali, is facing accusations of killing late Inkosi ya Makosi IV, who died recently, through witchcraft.

Accusing Khumbo Kachali are relatives of the fallen Paramount Chief and some chiefs in the district who were witnesses to something suspicious which the Vice President did several months before the Chief disappeared.

One chief from Mzimba who is part of the people pointing accusing fingers at Kachali told the media that they have no doubt it is the Vice President who got rid of the Chief through magic because of a sour relationship that existed between the two.

According to this chief, Kachali and late M’mbelwa were all along in a good personal relationship, besides their cultural and traditions where one was the subject of the other and Kachali is right from M’mbelwa’s village.

However the warm relationship between the two went sour when Kachali was dismissed from the then ruling party, DPP, together with President Joyce Banda, who was vice president of both the republic and of the party.

Inkosi ya Makosi being a staunch supporter of the then President, Bingu wa Mutharika, and his DPP had a field day castigating Kachali as ungrateful and treacherous for conniving with Joyce Banda to overthrow Mutharika.

Under the directives of Inkosi ya Makosi, Kachali and PP had problems to address meetings in the district while Mutharika and the DPP were in power.

According to the chief, the source of this story, when Mutharika died and the new administration took over with Kachali becoming Vice President, the late Paramount chief got moving to be accepted by the new set up.

The chief told the People’s Party Confidential that Kachali made it difficult for Mmbelwa to get into the new administration until President Joyce Banda intervened and advised Kachali to forgive the Inkosi and have her administration work with him.

Kachali, according to the chief, told the President that he would only forgive the Inkosi if he apologised to him personally. President Banda, the chief said, indicated she was not interested in getting involved in Inkosi making the apology.

At the insistence of Kachali, a date and place were arranged and Inkosi ya Makosi mobilised his chiefs and his relatives to see Kachali and offer his apology. They took along a bull to be offered to Kachali as part of the sorry.

When they approached the Vice President’s place, he demanded that they crawl on their knees for a distance of 500 metres before seeing him.

The chief, who was part of the shaming crawling, said after Mmbelwa apologised to Kachali and offered the bull, the Vice President accepted the animal on condition:

“He said he would only accept the animal if a pit was dug out and the animal was buried in it alive. This was done. After that the Vice President said he was ready to accept the apology,” the chief said.

As they returned to their respective homes, according to the chief, all the members of Mmbelwa’s delegation were puzzled by the Vice President’s actions, especially his demand that the animal should be buried in a pit while it was alive.

“We connect the Inkosi’s sudden death to the burial of the living animal which the Vice President demanded. He knew why he wanted the animal buried alive. We think it is connected to the sudden death,” said the chief.

M’mbelwa died at Mwaiwathu Private Hospital in Blantyre for what is claimed to have been a diabetic attack.

Vice President Kachali hosted the funeral vigil at his Mtunthama official residence in Lilongwe, a development the chief dismissed as shedding of crocodile tears. – By Peoples Party Confidential