Malawi’s government has ordered prosecutors to drop two major financial crime cases against 10 people, including sitting cabinet ministers and the country’s top fiscal officials, even as Lilongwe pursues a new programme with the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
The office of the director of public prosecutions discontinued criminal proceedings against former Reserve Bank of Malawi (RBM) governor Dalitso Kabambe, his deputy Henry Mathanga, former finance minister Joseph Mwanamvekha, secretary to the treasury Cliff Chiunda and cabinet minister Jean Mathanga, among others.
The two cases, which together named 10 accused, had been running for nearly five years and involved charges of abuse of office and breaches of procurement procedures at the centre of Malawi’s fiscal architecture. The discontinuance came just months after Mathanga was reinstated as deputy governor of the Reserve Bank and Cliff Chiunda confirmed as secretary to the treasury.
This also comes after Peter Mutharika of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) won Malawi’s September 2025 general election, defeating incumbent Lazarus Chakwera of the Malawi Congress Party (MCP). Mutharika’s return to the presidency ended five years of MCP rule, under which most of the criminal proceedings had been filed and prosecuted.
The accused were DPP-era officials. Kabambe had served as RBM governor during Mutharika’s previous presidency, while Mwanamvekha was finance minister. The prosecutions, launched between 2020 and 2023, were framed publicly as anti-corruption efforts but critics alleged they were also instruments of political marginalisation.
The individuals hold or have returned to senior state positions. The attorney general gave the instruction to discontinue the cases and the director of public prosecutions acted on it.
Court documents confirm the DPP admitted he sought guidance under the Constitution and was told by the attorney general to discontinue the cases. Under Malawi’s Constitution, the DPP is meant to exercise prosecutorial discretion independently. An instruction from the executive’s chief legal officer to drop high-profile cases is, in effect, executive intervention in criminal proceedings.
Asked about the grounds for withdrawal, ministry of justice spokesperson Frank Namangale said the DPP would furnish the reasons to parliament’s legal affairs committee. No substantive public justification has been offered.
Kabambe, Mathanga and Mwanamvekha were accused of misrepresentation of economic figures purportedly designed to make the IMF believe that the government was meeting the conditions of a $108 million extended credit facility.
Prosecutors said the alleged deception led the IMF to cancel the facility, depriving Malawi of budget support at a moment of acute fiscal stress.
Separately, Kabambe, Mathanga and Chiunda faced charges related to unauthorised expenditure and concealment of public funds amounting to $350m, linked to a loan facility from the African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank).
A third thread involved allegations that Kabambe and Mathanga had authorised transfers of 4.3 billion Malawian kwacha to FDH Bank on the eve of the 2020 presidential election result announcement. A forensic audit described it as a fraudulent transaction without RBM board approval.
The DPP’s discontinuance letters, dated 11 February, said the state reserved the right to revive the cases within six months if new and substantial evidence emerged and that bail conditions for all accused had been lifted.
The discontinuances come at a sensitive juncture for Malawi’s finances. Its extended credit facility programme, approved in November 2023, was terminated in May last year after no review was completed within the required 18 month.
The lapse froze the remaining $140m of a $175m package. The Mutharika government, which inherited that vacuum on taking office in late 2025, has indicated its intention to negotiate a new arrangement.
The IMF, for its part, has been explicit about what any new programme requires. Its July 2025 Article IV consultation statement stressed the need to advance the fight against corruption and underscored the importance of enhancing transparency, including by publishing a 2024 governance diagnostic assessment.
The discontinuance of prosecutions against individuals who allegedly manipulated economic data submitted to the IMF, and who now occupy the very offices that will negotiate a new programme, creates a credibility problem.
The move could undermine Lilongwe’s pursuit of a new programme with the International Monetary Fund
