Exodus begins: Chaima Banda leaves MCP
Chris Chaima Banda, the Malawi Congress Party (MCP) 1st Deputy Director of Strategic Planning, has resigned from the party.
A letter of the decision is making rounds on social media just hours after the Malawi Electoral Commission (MEC) declared Prof. Peter Mutharika as the winner of the September 16 presidential election.
In the letter dated 26 September 2025 and addressed to the MCP Secretary General, Banda announced his resignation both as a member of the MCP National Executive Committee and as a long-serving party member.
He described the decision as “painful but necessary”, accusing a cartel of opportunists of hijacking the party and government during the past five years.
“True MCP members were thrown under the bus by a cartel of thieves who hijacked MCP and government machinery, while those thieves were travelling in tinted Prados and flying across the globe chasing the dollar,” reads part of the letter.
Banda, who claimed deep family roots in MCP, further stated that he sacrificed a lucrative civil service career in the United Kingdom to help support MCP’s return to power in 2020.
However, he lamented that the party quickly lost direction, allowing looting of public resources that left hospitals without medicine, filling stations without fuel, and banks without foreign exchange.
He also recalled being framed in a corruption case linked to NOCMA and MERA, saying he had endured four years of court appearances without support from his colleagues in MCP.“
“I have been persecuted and my family has suffered humiliation as a reward for everything I have done for MCP. I am very sure that no one can blame me for taking this action,” Banda wrote.
The letter closes with a stinging remark, suggesting that those who benefited from public funds during MCP’s rule should now be the ones to keep the party alive financially.The timing of the resignation has stirred heated debate online, as it comes barely hours after MEC Chairperson Justice Annabelle Mtalimanja officially declared Prof. Mutharika as president-elect with 56.8 percent of the vote.
MCP is yet to issue an official response to the letter, but political commentators say Banda’s move underscores the cracks and frustrations within the party in the aftermath of electoral defeat.
