Malawi seizes excavator in Greenbelt case

The Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB), Malawi’s anti-corruption agency, has seized an excavator belonging to Kenneth Khonje, managing director of construction company Einstein Construction Limited, which is involved in the Greenbelt Authority (GBA) case, a scandal valued at 36.7 billion kwachas. According to local media, the seizure was ordered by a court, with the ACB suspecting that the equipment is the proceeds of a crime. The ACB’s acting director general confirmed the operation.

Gabriel Chembezi also said that other assets had been seized from other suspects and that sums of money had been recovered from some of them. He declined to give further details, citing ongoing legal proceedings. The suspicions concern payments to contractors for the construction and rehabilitation of four irrigation schemes: Nthola-Ilora in Karonga, Lweya in Nkhata Bay, Mlambe in Mangochi and Nchalo in Chikwawa, intended to increase agricultural production.

In a statement on 17 January 2026, the ACB reported alleged payments of 36.78 billion kwachas, compared with the 28.93 billion mentioned initially in the complaint that led to the investigation. According to the agency, these payments were made without performance bonds and on the basis of falsified work certificates; some of the money was allegedly withdrawn from banks and channelled into political campaigns. These allegations remain to be decided by the courts. The first phase led to the arrest and prosecution of 11 people, including senior GBA officials and private contractors, among them former director general Eric Dudley Chidzungu and the director of irrigation operations, Dr Chisomo Kumbuyo.