Malawi's former Vice President Dr Michael Usi has torn into the country's ruling Democratic Progressive Party, declaring there is barely any difference between the current DPP administration and the MCP government he served under -- except that the DPP, he says, has taken corruption to new heights.
Speaking to a local broadcaster, Usi said the only real difference between DPP rule and the previous MCP administration was that the DPP government had gone further in corruption and looting state resources.
Breaking a period of public silence, the former VP, who leads the Odya Zake Alibe Mulandu party, said DPP and MCP were essentially "twins" -- separated only by which one had taken looting further.
Usi said the Tonse Alliance had started well after its 2020 election win, but things soured when MCP began sidelining leaders of partner parties from governing -- and argued the current administration has gone even further down that road since taking power on 16 September 2025.
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He also dismissed government boasts over food security, insisting there was no reason for DPP to take pride in claims that "people are eating," calling it an obvious baseline rather than an achievement, and said the real priorities should be tackling corruption, crime and development.
He further urged politicians to fear ordinary citizens, arguing that it is the public who holds the power to elect or remove leaders from office.
Boma ili ndi la MCP langosiyana kuti ili lalawirira kuba -- Usi
Usi isn't alone
His broadside lands just days after UTM Party leader Dr Dalitso Kabambe launched his own explosive assault on the DPP, marking one year since Peter Mutharika's party took office.
Kabambe alleged more than K20 billion in disputed transactions at Blantyre Water Board, a further K4.7 billion allegedly paid to suppliers by Southern Region Water Board with nothing delivered, and a staggering K38.8 billion said to have vanished from a maize import deal involving Zambia -- on top of K11.8 billion in alleged irregularities at power utility ESCOM and K1 billion tied to fuel contracts at NOCMA.
He accused the DPP administration of shielding those implicated rather than rooting out the corruption, arguing every stolen kwacha was money that should have gone toward medicines, roads and clean water.
Notably, state broadcaster MBC and the privately-owned Nation newspaper gave Kabambe's speech no coverage at all, while the Daily Times splashed it on its front page under the headline "Kabambe takes on govt" -- fuelling opposition claims that critical voices are being frozen out of mainstream media.
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Government has yet to respond in detail to either set of allegations. DPP-aligned commentators have pushed back hard, with one pro-government outlet dismissing Kabambe's claims as "the same tired politics of allegations without proof."
