In two separate actions, the High Court of Malawi and Supreme Court of Appeal are set to decide the fate of five Malawi Defence Force (MDF) senior officers protesting their redeployment to the civil service. In Lilongwe on Thursday, High Court Judge Kenyatta Nyirenda heard arguments from the State and MDF officers and reserved his ruling to a later date. On the other hand, in Blantyre the Supreme Court set a fresh date for an interpartes hearing of the matter following another application made by the State.
In an interview after the High Court hearing yesterday, lawyer representing the MDF officers Allan Chinula said, the case is over for them and they will only wait for judgement. However, he said he was yet to be served with the fresh application made by Attorney General (AG) Frank Mbeta for the matter to be heard in the Supreme Court. Said Chinula: “That is news to me.
We have not been served with anything. I was with counsel Neverson Chisiza from the AG’s office, but he never said anything to me in court. We will wait until they serve us.” In a WhatsApp response yesterday, Mbeta said they will handle the matters separately because they are different.
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“The judge has reserved judgement to another date. The application before the Supreme Court is not the same as the one before the High Court. We will handle both,” he said.
The Supreme Court inter partes summons we have seen, filed by Mbeta and dated January 26 2026, say the matter will be heard on February 18 2026. On January 7 2026 Nyirenda dismissed with costs the application made by Chief Secretary to the Government Justin Saidi to discharge a stay order and permission for judicial review obtained by the MDF officers against their redeployment. In his sworn statement, Saidi, among others, argued that the officers have running contracts with MDF, which is evidence of the private law nature of the matter and, therefore, not subject to judicial review as remedy.
However, the officers in their sworn statement counter-argued that the matter is public and subject to judicial review since Saidi wrote the secondment letters in his capacity as holder of a public office. The affected MDF officers are major generals Chikunkha Soko, Saiford Kalisha, Swithan Mchungula, Kakhuta Banda and Brigadier General Harold Dzoole.
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