The High Court of Malawi has ruled that the Kaphwiti Banda family is the lawful owner of Tichitenji Estate in Mchinji, effectively dismissing ownership claim by former official hostess Mama Cecelia Kadzamira. In a ruling delivered yesterday in Lilongwe, Judge Simeon Mdeza declared as defective and invalid a title deed that Kadzamira, who was founding president Hastings Kamuzu Banda’s confidante, held and that the estate belongs to the family of the late politician Elias Zakeyu Kaphwiti Banda. The court noted that Kaphwiti Banda’s lease was registered earlier, as such, takes legal priority.
“The claimant’s title is affected by fundamental legal defects… These defects go to the root of the claimant’s asserted right to exclusive possession,” reads part of the 33-page ruling in Civil Case Number 373 of 2020 where Kaphwiti Banda’s widow Falesi and son, Gabon, were the second and third defendants. The judge said evidence showed that the lease held by Kaphwiti Banda’s estate was registered earlier and was never lawfully cancelled, surrendered or forfeited. As a result, it enjoyed priority under Section 8 of the Deeds Registration Act, he said.
The court further found that Kadzamira’s claim of trespass against the Kaphwiti family and Traditional Authority (T/A) Kawere could not be sustained. The ruling ended a long-running dispute whose origins date back to the one-party era under Kamuzu Banda and Malawi Congress Party (MCP). Court records show that Kaphwiti Banda secured ownership of the land in 1968 at Kadzamira Village, T/A Kawere in Mchinji.
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After falling out with the one-party regime and fleeing into exile, Kamuzu Banda later took over the farm. In her affidavit, Kadzamira said Kamuzu Banda subsequently gifted it to her. Kadzamira sued in 2020 after members of the Kaphwiti family camped at the farm in an attempt to repossess it.
She named T/A Kawere, Falesi Banda and Gabon Banda as defendants. The Attorney General joined as a third party. Lawyers for the defendants—Kita and Company and Kalekeni Kaphale Lawyers—argued that Kadzamira’s title was invalid, saying the minister responsible for lands could not legally transfer the farm to Kamuzu Banda in 1972 because it had already been registered in Kaphwiti Banda’s name in 1968. Mdeza upheld the arguments, invoking the principle of nemo dat quod non habet—that one cannot give what one does not have—and citing failure to comply with registration timelines.
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