Africa-Press – Malawi. In a move that has stunned the energy sector and stirred quiet conversations in government corridors, the Electricity Supply Corporation of Malawi (Escom) Chief Executive Officer, Kamkwamba Kumwenda, has been removed from the helm and reassigned to the Malawi University of Business and Applied Sciences (MUBAS) not as an executive but a mere lecturer.
The unexpected transfer, communicated through a formal letter from the Office of the President and Cabinet and signed by Chief Secretary Dr. Justin Adack Saidi, orders Kumwenda to wind up his duties at Escom immediately and report to the university, where he will now serve under an academic employment arrangement.
The letter insists that while he will work at MUBAS, Kumwenda will remain an Escom employee and continue to receive all associated benefits. The wording of the directive is simple yet abrupt, and Kumwenda, in confirming the letter’s authenticity, did not offer further comment on the reasons behind this shift.
What is striking is that just three years ago, Kumwenda was being hailed as the technocratic mind who would lead Escom through its reform era. Now, that same figure is being directed to pick up lecture notes rather than boardroom documents.
The move is already provoking debate among Malawians who are asking whether executive leadership positions in state institutions are appointments based on competence and continuity or placements that can be reshuffled without explanation. It is not just the nature of the transfer that raises questions but also the timing.
Escom is currently grappling with persistent power instability, complex negotiations with independent power suppliers, and deep financial strain. Removing the CEO at such a critical moment risks unsettling strategic progress, and it is not lost on observers that decisions of this magnitude rarely emerge without internal or political motivations.
Even more intriguing is the reception at MUBAS. Staff and observers are openly wondering whether recruitment processes in academic institutions still follow competitive advertisements and interviews or whether they, too, have now become extensions of political placement. The optics are unmistakable: one day a national utility boss responsible for keeping the lights on, the next day a lecturer whose appointment no one recalls seeing announced.
Efforts to obtain official comment from Escom leadership were unsuccessful, with several senior officials quietly admitting the development reached them informally and left them equally puzzled. Within energy policy circles, uncertainty now hangs in the air, and while some call it a routine reassignment, others see it as a calculated redirection of influence and control within one of the nation’s most strategic institutions.
At the centre of it all is a silent truth Malawi knows too well: leadership in public institutions remains vulnerable to unexplained shifts, and those shifts often leave the public to speculate because the official answers never arrive.
For now, Escom is without its chief steward, MUBAS has gained a lecturer whose arrival did not follow ordinary procedure, and the public is left to interpret what this move truly signals.
And sometimes, what is not explained speaks louder than the explanation that never comes.
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