Malawi’s Former Deputy Speaker, Clement Chiwaya, 50 shot himself in the head while attending a meeting on Thursday. Clement Chiwaya took his own life inside the parliament building, where he had gone to dispute car privileges promised to him after resigning in 2019.
James Kadadzera, a police spokesman, acknowledged the event but declined to provide further details until he had a full report from investigators. In a statement, Parliament said it “regrets to notify the public that the former deputy speaker… committed suicide at the parliament building.”
The incident was linked to “frustration with the enforcement of his service conditions,” according to the report. Chiwaya purchased his official vehicle in 2019, as required by his contract, at the end of his five-year tenure. He had, however, attempted to have parliament compensate him for damages caused in an accident that occurred six months later.
He decided to take the case to court. The legal procedure is still in progress. Chiwaya, who uses a wheelchair, seems to have snuck a gun into the high-security building, according to a statement from parliament.
Being a disabled person, the (security) scanner alarms were judged to be from the wheelchair, the report stated. Chiwaya shot himself in the head inside the office of the clerk of parliament, Fiona Kalembera, according to a source in parliament. From 2004 until he was elected deputy speaker, he had been a member of parliament.