By Vincent Gunde
Kamuzu International Airport (KIA) staff houses at Chinkhuti area in Lumbadzi are facing encroachment by land buyers claiming to have allegedly bought it from Airport Development Limited (ADL) to the surprise of the staffs suspecting something filthy to have taken place.
Kamuzu International Airport was officially open to the use of both local and international flights by the country’s former head of State Ngwazi Dr. Hastings Kamuzu Banda in 1981 with the staff houses located at Chinkhuti in Dowa district.
In those years, Lumbadzi River formed a boundary line between Lilongwe and Dowa districts meaning that the airport was in Lilongwe while staff houses were in Dowa with ownership of the land belonging to Airport Development Limited (ADL).
44 years down the line, ADL is being suspected to have allegedly sold the whole land belonging to it between March and July, 2025 and those that have bought the land are putting demarcations as indications that the land belongs to them.
A source who claimed to quote him anonymous said KIA staff had gardens for maize and other agricultural produces saying all this land was allegedly sold and the developers are planting cassava cuttings and hedges for their places.
She said the staff houses have been left with no room for expansion claiming that if ADL consulted them on the development that it is offering for sale its land, staff houses occupants could have made a decision on whether to continue staying in the houses or not saying their main worry now is security which has been left to the dogs.
The woman said staff members do not know the identities of those that have allegedly bought the land in Lumbadzi and some of these people have left their workers to be implementing whatever they want to develop at their places.
“Security is now our major concern, anything can happen to us, if ADL came to us to tell us of the impending sale of the land, some of us could have relocated ourselves to other areas,” said the source.
She said the area along the road from Chinkhuti to Lumbadzi market and that joining the M1 Halima Daudi to Kamuzu International Airport crossing Lumbadzi River and Mchepa village, has been sold to the suspected buyers.
The source has requested the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) to investigate the alleged sale of the land for ADL at Lumbadzi and bring to book all those responsible for the dubious sale to face the long arm of the law observing that staff houses occupants were not informed of ADL decision to sale the land.
