Mayaya under Siege

By: Andrew Cane Chilapondwa

Human rights activist Billy Mayaya is under fire following allegations that he was paid off in order to cancel the March 10 peaceful demonstrations over food insecurity in the country.

Mayaya, who has been criticising Peter Mutharika led government over poor governance since taking over from Joyce Banda of Peoples Party (PP) in 2014, shocked Malawians when he announced the cancellation of the demos over security concerns.

Soon after announcing the cancellation of the demos, Mayaya has been accused of receiving money from DPP-led government in order to shut him up.

However, he has denied the allegations saying the decision to cancel the demonstrations had to do with the availability of maize in all Admarc depots across the country.

“I travelled in some parts of the country where I saw maize in Admarc depots using my own resources in my capacity as director of Right to Food Network,” he told a local radio station.

“I have been an activist for more than 20 years now and nobody has ever bribed me. I cancelled the demos because there was no security assurance from Malawi Police so I couldn’t have risked the protester’s lives,” he explained.

He then revealed that he will go back to the drawing board in order to come up with next course of action.

Mayaya was once told by Information Minister to join politics because he has some personal vendetta against the DPP administration.