State terror masquerading as anti-corruption

When law enforcement becomes political theatre

On the evening of Friday, 16 January 2026, Times 360 Malawi rushed out what it theatrically branded as “breaking news”: the arrest of Greenbelt Authority officials and private contractors—paraded before the public as criminals on the alleged orders of the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB).

Those arrested were Linda Phiri, incorrectly introduced as “Finance Manager”; Masautso Kamowa, Procurement Manager; Kenneth Khonje of Einstein Construction; and Victor Chabwera of PLMB Engineers.

The ACB claimed it received a complaint on 10 November 2025 alleging that the Greenbelt Authority awarded contracts “dubiously” and made advance payments amounting to K28.9 billion, with reckless insinuations—offered without a shred of evidence—that some funds were diverted to politicians for campaign financing.

At first glance, this looked like another anti-corruption exercise.

In truth, it is something far darker.

This is state persecution disguised as law enforcement—the latest chapter in a pattern of authoritarian incompetence, institutional abuse, and political intimidation that now defines the DPP administration.

A regime at war with governance, law, and intelligence

Over the weekend, I conducted an independent inquiry into the arrests—not to sanitize corruption, but to expose manufactured criminality.

What emerged was not a fight against corruption, but a reckless display of power by an administration that no longer governs—but terrorizes.

Equally revealing was the suspicious efficiency of the Times Group, which sprang into action with unnatural speed the moment the state’s persecution machinery was activated. Their reporting collapsed under its own incompetence—misstating job titles, mangling institutional structures, and parroting ACB talking points without scrutiny.

For the record:

• The Greenbelt Authority has no position called “Finance Manager.”
• The correct title is Director of Finance and Investments.

But facts, it seems, are optional when the assignment is political assassination by headline.

This same media house has maintained a deafening two-month silence over the K6 billion allegedly squandered by President Mutharika on a so-called “private trip.”

This is not journalism.

It is editorial prostitution.

Part I: Facts that completely collapse the ACB narrative

A closer look at this case does not merely weaken the ACB’s claims. It obliterates them.

1. The ACB Approved the Contracts It Now Pretends Are Criminal

The contracts now described as “dubious” were processed through full, lawful procurement procedures, complete with certifications and clearances from:

• The Anti-Corruption Bureau itself, and
• The Public Procurement and Disposal of Assets Authority (PPDA).

This exposes a grotesque contradiction:

Is the ACB now arresting people for contracts it approved with its own hands?
Or has the Bureau officially descended into the criminalization of its own paperwork?

2. No Ghost Projects. No Absconded Contractors. Only Active Worksites.

The arrested contractors are on site, executing works as contracted.

There are:

• No abandoned projects
• No vanished funds
• No phantom companies

This stands in stark contrast to the DPP’s long and shameful history of actual ghost projects, with Mombera University standing as a national monument to DPP fraud and deceit.

So we must ask the obvious questions the ACB is running from:

• What emergency justified these arrests?
• Who benefits from removing these contractors?
• Which politically connected cartels are waiting to step in?

This reeks not of justice—but of economic cleansing based on political loyalty.

3. A Legally Illiterate Charge That Exposes Institutional Decay

The arrest of the Director of Finance and Investments is particularly scandalous.

The charge reads:

“Abuse of office for authorizing payment of funds not commensurate with the quantity and quality of works.”

This is not just weak.

It is embarrassingly ignorant.

Any first-year public administration student knows:

• Certification of quantity and quality of works is the responsibility of technical and engineering departments—not finance.

By this logic, does the Finance Director at the ACB personally inspect construction sites and certify concrete quality?

This is not law enforcement.

This is legal illiteracy elevated to state policy.

4. The Day the Courts Exposed the Clown Show

The farce peaked on Tuesday, 20 January 2026, at the Lilongwe Magistrate Court.

The ACB arrived with twelve chaotic, incoherent charges, far exceeding the two charges authorized in the original warrant of arrest.

The court—visibly disturbed—discarded most of the documents, openly questioning who was fabricating charges on the fly.

The result:

• A humiliated prosecution
• A judiciary forced to babysit executive stupidity
• A government exposed as dangerously incompetent

This was not prosecution.

This was institutional vandalism.

Part II: The consolidation of tyranny by arrest

This case is not an anomaly. It is a pattern.

This is the same DPP administration that:

• Arrested a political opponent for uttering the words “We Got This.”
• Remanded a citizen for an entire month without charge, in open violation of the Constitution.
• Most recently arrested a former Minister of Information on charges so incoherent that even DPP loyalists are confused.

Arrest has become political messaging.
Detention has become governance.
Due process has become optional.

Part III: A nation must wake up

Malawians must confront an uncomfortable truth:

This administration no longer governs through policy, competence, or vision.

It governs through:

• Fear
• Intimidation
• Selective justice
• Media manipulation

The ACB is being turned into a political attack dog.
Journalism is being reduced to state-sponsored propaganda.

The DPP promised:

• Four fertilizer bags per household
• Free secondary education
• Jobs
• Economic recovery
• Integrity

Instead, it has delivered:

• Governance by arrest
• Legal chaos
• Institutional incompetence
• Political persecution
• A collapsing rule of law

A government that rules by fear

If this administration cannot govern, it must at least stop criminalizing professionalism and weaponizing institutions against citizens.

The truth is no longer hidden.

It is exposed, naked, and undeniable.

The only remaining question is this:

How much longer will Malawians tolerate a government that survives not on performance—but on fear?