Can Mutharika Cast First Stone On Attackers of People With Albinism? No!

BALL IN HIS COURT: President Mutharika

Since Malawi accepted the moniker ‘The Warm Heart of Africa’, it has had to be on its toes— with no room for error.

 

Any slight movement to the right and it is game over!

But, now, keeping it warm is proving to be a challenge, what with attacks on innocent people with albinism?

Not that attacks on innocent people are a new thing in Malawi. In fact, it is not that democracy has proven to be the horse attackers ride on.

At the height of Malawi’s one party regime, marshalled by the Malawi Congress Party, attackers, whose identity will forever remain unknown, descended on one of the townships in Blantyre City, namely Chilobwe, where they maimed at will and killed like there was no tomorrow. This was in the 1970s right under the watch of the mighty MCP and its youth leaguers.

It must have been tough to call Malawi the Warm Heart of Africa then. How, for example, does one deal with negative publicity in a country reputed for warm-heartedness? An impossible task.

Then, after the re-advent of multiparty politics in 1994— ‘re-advent’ because Malawi, the then Nyasaland, voted for multiple parties before local politics suffered a change and Malawians started ruling themselves on July 6— banditry became the in-thing.

For the first time in Malawi’s history, armed robbers could terrorise townships such as Machinjiri, BCA, Bangwe in Blantyre City; Area 49 and other places in Lilongwe City, among other places. In fact, cases where law enforcers were gunned down became commonplace, with one dedicated police officer succumbing to gun shots at Ginnery Corner in Malawi.

Malawi was in a crisis no-longer-silent.

That must have been a bad turn for Malawi, even though a few individuals were causing mayhem.

In an era when armed robbers could not only kill but rape and defile, HIV— in the cases where the long arm of the law did not catch up with the criminals— caught up with them; so that, today, the generation that became famous for armed robberies has been subdued.

Not for long though. With time, especially in the period between 2014 and August 2019, Malawi has registered cases of attacks on, this time, new targets— namely innocent people with albinism.

From January 2014 to date, at least 25 people with albinism have been killed— although, of course, some of the cases relate to missing persons. Malawi’s laws set seven years as the waiting period before an individual can be declared death without a death certificate.

“We are constantly living in fear,” says Association of Persons with Albinism (Apam) President Ian Simbota.

To make matters worse, the National Action Plan designed to stem cases of attacks has been underfunded by the government, meaning that Apam faces two enemies: criminal elements that are targeting persons with albinism for their body tissues and the government!

They could not be blamed for pointing an accusatory finger at the government, whose half-hearted effort to constitute a commission of inquiry into the issue of attacks on persons with albinism— in terms of why they are attacked, who is attacking them and the location of the market where their body parts are sold— has culminated in the commissioners, who were not given a timeframe, taking forever to tell Malawians which is which.

That is why it is difficult to be happy with the “Malawi: The Warm Heart of Africa’ moniker.

Why? Because there is something wrong with the arrangement of the words. To begin with, those who are being attacked— meaning, innocent people with albinism— are Malawians too. But, then, they are being attacked, and their hearts are cold with fear.

No citizen with albinism, children included, has remained unsullied from this fear, which is compounded by the fact that some of the perpetrators of the heinous crimes are blood relations. Literally.

This has been the case in Dedza District in the Central Region and Machinga  District in the Southern Region.

Not that government officials have not tried their best. President Peter Mutharika, for one, has, countless times, rallied against people who attack fellow humans simply because of differences in skin pigment.

“You cannot get rich by selling body parts of people with albinism. No one should cheat you,’ Mutharika said at one of his rallies in Thyolo District in the Southern Region.

At least, for now, cases of attacks have abated, even as the High Court in Zomba continues hearing the case in which MacDonald Masambuka, a person with albinism, was attacked and left for dead by relatives who connived with strangers to kill him.

His crime? He was born with the condition of albinism.

But then, even though cases of attacks on persons with albinism have abated, Mutharika is not about to rest. He has another case in his place.

The High Court, sitting in Mchinji District, last week sentenced three people to death for killing a person with albinism in 2015. 

The court found Douglas Mwale, Sophie Jere and Fontino Folosani guilty of murdering Priscott Pepuzani with a hole handle and metal bar. The trio chopped off Pepuzani’s limbs and buried his body in a garden. 

However, the country’s heads of State have never signed for the execution of murder convicts since 1994, parting ways with tradition.

Malawi’s founding president, Ngwazi Dr Hastings Kamuzu Banda, used to sign such execution orders and, once or twice a year, a hangman from Zimbabwe would silently sneak into the country to, in the open, carry out the ‘heavy’ task of executing convicts.

But Bakili Muluzi, who took over from The Ngwazi in 1994, never signed such execution warrants, citing, as it were, respect for human rights.

His successor, the late Bingu wa Mutharika, was not one to depart from the post-1994 tradition and never signed execution orders.

The same with Joyce Banda, who took over from Bingu after he collapsed, suddenly, at the State House in Lilongwe on April 5, 2012.

Will the new Mutharika break new ground, perhaps in a bid to send a strong message that he does not condone attacks on persons with albinism, be the first one to cast the condemning stone at the three murder convicts by signing the warrant of execution?

The answer is no.

Already, the president’s secretary, Mgeme Kalilani, has said it is not good for people to start crossing the bridge before they reach it.

“Ordinarily, the convicts are given a period of 21 days to appeal the ruling. So, in this case, there are two things that might happen. It is either that the convicts might appeal or not. It is only at that time that the issue of warrant of execution shall arise,” Kalilani says.

Even Apam, which has been resolute in calling on the government to act decisively on attackers of persons with albinism, has developed cold feet.

Actually, Simbota is stammering in broad daylight.

“We, as Apam, also realise the sanctity of life. So, we may not say hang them or not. It is up to the President to decide,” Simbota says.

Surely, it is difficult to be seen to be casting the first stone.

No wonder, Simbota does not even make sense when he makes a second attempt at an explanation.

“We do not believe in killing but, in this case, the people that are being killed are Malawians who also wanted to live. These sentences have brought excitement among many people. We are all under the law of the land and we are hopeful that the President will respect the rule of law,” Simbota says.

Surely, the ball is in Mutharika’s court and his decision will spell the fate of both attackers and the attacked. A tricky situation to be in.