Court grants Lawyer Gift Nankhuni an injunction against Malawi Law Society’s order for suspension and hefty fines.

Private Practicing Lawyer Gift Nankhuni has obtained an injunction restraining Malawi Law Society from enforcing the decision by its Disciplinary Committee suspending him for a period of six months and ordering him to pay hefty fines. The High Court of Malawi at the Lilongwe District Civil Division Registry has granted an injunction and permission to apply for Judicial Review of the said decision of the Disciplinary Committee of the Malawi Law Society in Judicial Review Cause No. 6 of 2025.

The injunction granted by Honorable Justice Pemba, among other things, restrains the disciplinary committee of Malawi Law Society (MLS), either through itself or its servants, agents, subordinates, employees or whomsoever acting on its behalf from implementing, acting upon or enforcing any of its findings, decisions and recommendations contained in the document dated 10 January, 2025, until final determination of the substantive Judicial Review.

When contacted, Lawyer Gift Nankhuni declined to comment and directed us to his lawyers, Allan Chinula SC, John Suzi Banda and Gilbert Khonyongwa. Upon contacting them they all declined to comment stating that the matter is still in court.

Upon a perusal of the court record, this reporter has found that Gift Nankhuni was charged with the offenses of fraudulent or improper conduct of professional duties, engaging in misconduct that brings the profession of law into dispute and failure to provide competent legal presentation to a client.

Nankhuni was found guilty of the offenses of fraudulent or improper conduct of professional duty and engaging in misconduct that brings the profession of law into disrepute and was acquitted of the charge of failure to provide competent legal representation to a client.

The record shows that Counsel Nankhuni’s firm had represented one client, Saliyeti Kanyamula, now deceased in a huge land claim against the government which was won and the said Saliyeti Kanyamula was fully paid and the file was closed.

After closure of the file and before the demise of Saliyeti Kanyamula some unknown people approached the firm, and started claiming that they were supposed to be part of the case sometime in 2022 after the late Saliyeti Kanyamula had been paid in August 2021. The matter had been handled by Mr. Nankhuni’s firm from 2013 and judgement was entered in 2015.

The said unknown people approached the Malawi Human Rights Commission who referred the matter to the Malawi Law Society for Investigations. Following the Malawi Human Rights Commission’s referral for investigations, the Disciplinary Committee invited Mr. Nankhuni to a disciplinary hearing on factual allegations as follows; “1. You were engaged by the complainants and Saliyeti Kanyamula (deceased) as inhabitants of Kuliyani Village, Traditional Authority Chitukula in Lilongwe District to represent them in a matter in which they were seeking compensation from the Malawi Government. 2. Your firm commenced an action registered as Civil Cause Number 905 of 2013: Saliyeti Kanyamula vs Attorney General (Regional Commissioner for Lands- Centre).

The summons only indicated Saliyeti Kanyamula as the plaintiff only when he was acting as the representative of the Kuliyani Village, a fact which was disclosed to you. 3. The claim was successful and the plaintiff was paid the sum of MK 725,000,000.00 in 2020. Since the complainants were not included as parties to court case, the compensation was only paid to Saliyeti Kanyamula and they did not benefit in any way”

The Disciplinary Committee made adverse factual findings against Mr. Nankhuni as follows which on the face of it appear different from what Mr. Nankhuni was charged with and after noting that the Complainants who are not named in the charge or the ruling itself had never given instructions to Mr. Nankhuni or his firm or met him. “You were informed by Mr Kanyamula before payment was made to Mr Kanyamula that he was representing other people before payment was made to Mr Kanyamula, and you failed to protect the interests of the complainants when you paid all the compensation without first notifying the complainants”.

Counsel Nankhuni has so far filed 39 grounds which are covering procedural as well as substantive issues in support of his application for leave to apply for judicial review as well as the order of injunction.

A perusal of the sworn statements sworn by Counsel Gift Nankhuni as well as the Sworn Statement sworn by Counsel Shabir Latif SC, a member of the Disciplinary Committee of the Malawi Law Society clearly shows that there was never an issue before the committee of Counsel Nankhuni embezzling any client funds as all the compensation was paid to Mr. Saliyeti Kanyamula.

This was also confirmed by Counsel Gabriel Chembezi earlier on when we had sent him and the Chairperson of the Disciplinary Committee of the Malawi law Society, Mr. Alison Mbang’ombe, the Solicitor General, a questionnaire as to whether Counsel Nankhuni had embezzled any client funds and further as to why he was never arrested or refereed to the office of the Director of Public Prosecutions, to which he replied as follows; “Mr. Nankhuni did not steal or embezzle the money of the complainants.

Therefore, the disciplinary committee did not deem it appropriate to refer the matter to the Director of Public Prosecutions as there were no elements of criminality in the conduct of Mr. Nankhuni.”

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