Nyasulu wants court to review Maele hiring

The appointment of Fostino Maele as Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) is facing a legal challenge with renowned prosecutor Kamudoni Nyasulu asking the High Court of Malawi to assess its constitutionality. Nyasulu, a Senior Counsel (SC) who recently challenged discontinuation of cases by Maele since his appointment in November 2025, wants Judge Anneline Kanthambi of the High Court of Malawi Commercial Division in Lilongwe to refer the matter to the Chief Justice for certification as a constitutional matter and be heard before not less than three judges. He has sued the Solicitor General and Secretary for Justice, the DPP, Maele and Attorney General (AG) as first, second, third and fourth defendants respectively in Judicial Review Case Number 1 of 2026. Through former AG Chikosa Silungwe, Nyasulu has also filed in the same court an application seeking a stay of proceedings in the initial judicial review case. Nyasulu: It requires interpretation. | Nation He argues that when Mutharika appointed Maele as DPP on November 26 2025 there was no vacancy in the office of DPP as Masauko Chamkakala, appointed on January 30 2023, still had a running term until December 2027. Reads the submission: “The Constitution contains no provision permitting: (a). Concurrent holders of the office of the DPP; (b). Overlapping tenures of purported holders of the office of the DPP; or (c). The appointment of a second DPP while the prior office holder remains in office. “The purported appointment and confirmation of FYM [Maele] therefore, raise serious constitutional questions requiring interpretation and determination by a panel of not less than three judges under Section 9(2) of the Courts Act.” Nyasulu is asking the court to determine whether the President acted ultra vires Section 101(1) of the Constitution by appointing a DPP while the office was not vacant and whether the Public Appointments Committee (PAC) of Parliament acted ultra vires under Section 101(1) of the Constitution by confirming a second DPP while the first remained in office. He also questions whether Section 102(1) of the Constitution creates a mandatory vacancy precondition for appointment and whether Section 99 of the Constitution permits only one DPP at any given time and whether dual tenure is constitutionally permissible. In his skeleton arguments, Silungwe argues that the constitutional questions are structural and affect prosecutorial independence, legality of criminal proceedings, separation of powers, rule of law, public finance governance. He said: “The consequences are national in scope and affect ongoing corruption prosecutions of trillions of kwacha in fiscal-illegality cases and donor confidence in the integrity of the Financial Crimes Division. Only a three-judge panel can resolve these issues under Section 9(2) of the Courts Act.” The Nation last month established that the Malawi Government continues to pay Chamkakala monthly salaries and benefits as DPP. Maele yesterday referred The Nation to Ministry of Justice and Constitutional Affairs spokesperson Frank Namangale who said he was not aware of Nyasulu’s application. “We are hearing this for the first time,” he said briefly. Section 102 (2) of the Constitution provides that a person holding the office of DPP may be removed from the office by the President before the expiration of his or her term of office, if the President is satisfied that the person holding that office is incompetent in the exercise of his or her duties or “compromised in the exercise of his or her duties to the extent that his or her ability to exercise his or her functions impartially is in serious question”. In the initial case, Nyasulu alongside fellow lawyers George Desiderio Liwimbi and Enock Chibwana sued the State for terminating their contracts as private prosecutors and subsequent discontinuation of cases they were prosecuting. The matter is pending judgement, after hearing on June 11 2026. The post Nyasulu wants court to review Maele hiring appeared first on Nation Online .