The hearing was meant to shed light on the hours that followed one of Malawi’s worst air disasters. It turned into a verbal sparring match. On Monday, before the ad hoc parliamentary committee investigating the crash that killed former Vice President Saulos Chilima and eight others, witness Samuel Christy Lwara and several lawmakers traded accusations and insults, forcing the chair to step in repeatedly, Nyasa Times reported.
The Malawi Defence Force Dornier 228 went down on June 10, 2024, in the Chikangawa Forest Reserve in northern Malawi while flying from Lilongwe to Mzuzu. All nine people on board were killed. Two investigations had already tried to establish the cause of the accident, but the government authorized a new parliamentary probe in early 2026 to address gaps found in earlier reports. The vice president’s widow, Mary Chilima, welcomed the decision by President Peter Mutharika.
Samuel Christy Lwara describes himself as an independent campaigner for UTM, the party founded by Saulos Chilima. He told lawmakers he was unconvinced by the way the army conducted the search. He said soldiers had stopped people from heading to Kasangazi, citing a lack of fuel. He recounted photographing the wreckage on June 11, 2024, between 8:10 and 8:30 a.m., and said the images vanished from his phone after security officers confiscated it. He also claimed that former army commander General Vincent Nundwe, now retired, had told him the aircraft was an old model without a black box.
His account was quickly challenged. George Jivason Kadzipatike, MP for Dowa Kasangazi, asked why he now spoke of people being turned away from Nthungwa when he had first mentioned Kasangazi. Joshua Malango, the Malawi Congress Party MP for Dedza Kasina, pressed him on whether he had really been first at the site. The witness first dodged, then withdrew the claim, according to The Nation. Committee members also questioned him about the phone he used and his statements that debris had been sent abroad for laboratory testing.
Tempers then flared. The witness offered to lecture the lawmakers, and Joshua Malango answered in kind, accusing him of inconsistencies. Samuel Christy Lwara charged that the MP was behaving in a manner unworthy of his office. Committee chair Macmillan Water Nyamilandu Manda said he was frustrated and warned that the inquiry could not move forward in such an atmosphere.
More than two years after the tragedy, Saulos Chilima’s death continues to raise questions in the country. In April, the committee announced that the nine victims would be exhumed for forensic autopsies as part of its work.