By LordDenning QB
The Vice President returned from South Korea on 9th June. He did not inform the President of his return (perhaps he intended to inform him subsequently). He had learnt of the death of Ralph Kasambara before his departure from South Korea. According to testimony by the PS in his office, Dr. Lucky Sikwese, the Vice President had initially formed a decision that he was not going to attend the funeral because he was tired from the trip from South Korea. This (the non-committal to attend) is the information that Dr. Sikwese communicated to the SPC when the two spoke while the Vice President and Dr. Sikwese were still at the airport in Blantyre, where they were to connect to Lilongwe.
The body of the late Kasambara was to be ferried from Blantyre via the same airport where the Vice President was. The Vice President formed the mind that he was going to bid farewell to his departed friend right at the airport while seeing the family off, before proceeding to Lilongwe. However, the mass requiem delayed such that by the time the plane that the Vice President was to connect to Lilongwe arrived at Chileka airport, the requiem mass had not yet finished. For this reason, the Vice President left Chileka airport without bidding farewell to his friend, the late Kasambara.
According to testimony of Dr. Sikwese (as revealed by the report), the Vice President formed a mind that he would delegate his wife (Mary) to represent him at the Kasambara funeral in Nkhata-Bay. However, Mrs Chilima was busy working on her PhD thesis which was due for submission the next day, thus she was not available to go either. It is at this point (which was later in the evening according to the report) that Dr. Chilima changed his mind and decided to attend the funeral. However, because he was tired, he decided to go by plane. He instructed his PS (Dr. Sikwese) to make arrangements for the military plane which had transported the Kasambara family and the late Kasambara’s remains to Mzuzu that day. The PS (Dr. Sikwese) contacted the MDF Commander directly (and not through the OPC).
According to the Commission’s finding, the military plane can be chartered for non-military uses in two different way: (1) Starting with informing the President as Commander-In-Chief who then liaises with the MDF; and (2) Contacting the MDF directly in which the President gets informed later on as a matter of protocol. Dr. Sikwese used the second method. One would suggest that this was mainly because the Office of the Vice President had not yet informed the President about his return from South Korea where he was delegated.
Which popular question has been addressed by this part of the report?
Prior to the inquiry, the has been an allegation, within the series of conspiracy theories that had dominated discussions on the tragedy, that the late Vice President was told to use the plane and that himself was of the view to go by road from Lilongwe to Nkhata-Bay. The question, therefore, was: Did anyone force the Vice President to use the plane? From the findings of the report as shared above, the answer is a clear NO!
