LILONGWE-(MaraviPost)-One of the country’s social media Influencers Onjezani Kenani has name Centre for Democracy and Economic Development Initiative (CDEDI) Executive Director Sylvester Namiwa as the 2025 most second personality of the year.

Writing on his Facebook page, Kenani lauds Namiwa for bravery show up in many circumstances during entire President Lazarus Chakwera’s regime against poor governance tendencies.

Kenani therefore narrates why Namiwa is the second personality of the year…..

Six or seven years ago, when Sylvester Namiwa quit working for President Peter Mutharika’s State House to launch the Centre for Democracy and Economic Development Initiatives (CDEDI), few believed in his efforts. Here was a young man strongly linked to the administration of the time, suddenly claiming to start fighting for the rights of the common man.

But Namiwa was undeterred. Over the years, he has remained relentless in his efforts to hold public officials accountable.

There is no office he has not written to, no infraction he has not challenged, no doubt he has failed to express loudly, sometimes even at the expense of being ridiculed.

For example, when he recently confronted Khato Civils for the latter to explain to the public what, exactly, was going on in the Salima-Lilongwe Project, Namiwa was surrounded by a team of articulate experts, who denigrated his curiosity without appearing to denigrate him.

Yet, even in that particular effort, he spoke for many who were in the dark about what was going on, and his courage shone through.

But it was in June 2025 when Namiwa’s boldness and determination caught national attention. At the time, there were anxieties as to whether elections were going to be truly free and fair. And if there is anything we Malawians are most proud of, it’s the integrity of our national elections.

And so, to ensure the government of the day did not tamper with our most cherished ritual, Namiwa led demonstrations in the streets of Lilongwe.

Secretly, the Malawi Congress Party, then in power, had vowed to never let demonstrations take place on Malawian soil on its watch.

MCP knew very well what demonstrations could do, after all it rode the wave of the 2019-2020 demonstrations to win power.

The party, therefore, went so far as to train and arm scores of thugs with panga knives. As MCP got drunk on power, it unleashed those thugs with impunity, without any regard or fear of the law.

That doomed day in June, the thugs came out for Namiwa in droves. Even as the army and the police watched, they hacked and flogged Namiwa to within an inch of his life.

The brutality drew widespread condemnation. How could the Malawi Defence Force (MDF) and the police, which are supposed to be apolitical, join thieves in harming an unarmed activist who merely wanted to exercise his freedom of expression?

Yes, MDF and the police took part in assaulting Namiwa through their inaction. They created a conducive environment for thuggery to thrive. The nation was appalled.

Indeed, even after we tossed MCP out of power, it remains one of the major highlights of the year on the political scene.

Mr. Namiwa demonstrated utmost bravery and sent a message , not only to MCP but to anyone else who will come into power, that you can silence some of the people some of the time, but you can never silence all of the people all of the time. Even in our darkest hours as a nation, there will always be someone ready to stand up without fear.

In June, Mr. Namiwa could have, like most of us, chosen the comfort zone, staying at home and whining quietly from the comfort of his living room about what needed to change.

Or, like the Human Rights Defenders Coalition, which, in 2019 and 2020 led the demonstrations that brought MCP to power, he could have chosen to sell his soul to the devil. But no, he went out in the streets and led protests to amplify what was broken in our society.

For this reason, this page recognizes Mr. Sylvester Namiwa as the second most outstanding personality of the year 2025 in the fight for good governance.

The Maravi Post