The Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) has arrested a Lilongwe based businessman and a Rwandan national on suspicion that they took part in granting citizenship to foreign nationals.
The Malawian, Hendrix Laher and the Blantyre-based Rwandan, Esili Kubwimana, were nabbed on Monday.
The ACB already picked former home affairs minister, Uladi Mussa, on allegations of negligence and abuse of office during his ministerial period. It also arrested former chief immigration officer, Hudson Mankhwala, on suspicion that he sanctioned the issuance of the citizenships to foreigners.
ACB Senior Public Relations Officer, Egrita Ndala said in a statement that Laher is suspected to have aided public officers to abuse their offices contrary to Section 35 of the Corrupt Practices Act while Kubwimana is suspected to have given false information to immigration officers when making applications for business and resident permit and Malawi citizenship contrary to Section 122 as read with Section 360 of the Penal Code.
Ndala said on September 25 2015, the ACB received a complaint alleging that on May 14 2014, Mankhwala granted Malawi citizenship to Rwandan nationals using a file belonging to another foreign national.
She said following the complaint, the graft busting body instituted investigations and established that citizenships were granted to people who were not eligible.
She, however, refused to directly link the arrests to those of Mussa and Mankhwala.
“We cannot be mentioning people who we already arrested whenever we make new arrests. All these people we are arresting are connected to the same immigration case which happened between 2013 and 2014,” she said.
On March 6, ACB arrested David Kwanjana, former senior assistant chief immigrations officer now Regional Immigration Officer for the Central Region. On March 9, the bureau also arrested a Burundian national Pascal Rwasa.
When he handed himself over to the ACB on March 6, Mussa admitted to have sanctioned the issuance of the citizenships. However, he argued that he saw nothing wrong with his actions on the issue since it has been happening since 1994.
The arrest on the matter is happening at a time a similar issue involving a Rwandan national, Vincent Murekezi, who was also granted Malawian citizenship in a similar way is taking centre stage in the courts.
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