President Lazarus Chakwera’s departure for the United Nations General Assembly (Unga77) in New York through Nairobi, Kenya delayed yesterday after aircraft engineers asked for more time to finalise “clearances”.

The President was scheduled to depart Kamuzu International Airport (KIA) in Lilongwe at 3pm for Kenya where  he is expected to attend the inaguration of that country’s former deputy president William Ruto as President before proceeding to USA.

Posting on his Facebook page yesterday afternoon, Minister of Information and Digitisation Gospel Kazako said that the President’s departure delayed “following a request from aircraft engineers for more time to finish their operational clearance”.

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In an interview later in the evening, he said the President would depart at 10:30pm.

Kazako, who is also the official government spokesperson, said: “He will attend the inauguration ceremony of the President-elect William Ruto. The President and the First Lady will be at the State luncheon at the invitation of the President-elect.”

From Kenya, the President is expected to proceed to USA for the 77th Unga.

On whether the President will also attend the burial of Queen Elizabeth II in the United Kingdom, Kazako referred us to State House where director of communication and special executive assistant to the President Sean Kampondeni did not respond to our questionnaire.

On Friday, last week, Minister of Foreign Affairs Nancy Tembo announced that Malawi will have 37 government-sponsored individuals as part of the delegation to New York.

She could, however, not state how much the government will spend for this trip but instead justified the size of the delegation, saying this is the first time there is such a lean delegation as previously more people would go to Unga.

Government in June this year instituted austerity measures to cut on public expenditure which included reduced international travel.

Speaking in a telephone interview yesterday, Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of Parliament chairperson Shadrick Namalomba said in the interest of transparency and accountability, government needed to publicly share how much this trip will cost and also share a list of the delegation for the public to appreciate if it’s worth it.

“ We need to know who is on the list and what role they will play after all this money belongs to the public. As PAC we will do our part at an appropriate time to seek answers from controlling officers,” he said. n

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