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Malawi: Officials charged with plotting coup following death of former President
The report found that soon after the death of Mutharika, cabinet ministers and senior government officials held a number of secret meetings aimed at preventing then Vice President Banda from assuming power as stipulated by the constitution.
Mutharika and Banda had fallen out as her boss wanted his younger brother, Peter, to take over from him when he retired in 2014. Banda objected to that and was expelled from the ruling party. She then founded her own People’s Party but she remained the government’s vice president.
According to the report, the younger Mutharika and Gondwe had suggested to Army Commander Gen. Henry Odillo that the army “just take over.” But Odillo told the commission “he was uncomfortable with the suggestion for it was not provided for in the constitution.”
As the government ministers haggled over what to do, they delayed confirmation of Mutharika’s death and instead sent the president’s dead body to South Africa for, according to former Information Minister Kaliati’s April 6 midnight press conference, “further treatment.”
The administration eventually admitted Mutharika’s death on April 7 and Ms. Banda was sworn in on the same day. She fired most of Mutharika’s ministers but retained a few, including Gondwe.
Copyright 2013 The Associated Press
