By Vincent Gunde
DOWA-(MaraviPost)-A group of Malawi Congress Party (MCP) reportedly invaded the house of Sainani Nkhoma on Tuesday evening arresting and handed him over to Mponela Police Station suspected of writing words carrying offensive insults on a social media platform against President Lazarus Chakwera.
Nkhoma is suspected of having commented on a picture of President Chakwera seeming to be dancing on TikTok carrying offensive language on May 5, 2024, on the Mponela Hotspot WhatsApp forum, the words which did not go well with other members of the forum.
MCP members were alerted and sooner, they mobilized themselves to go to Sainani Nkhoma’s house at around 7:30 pm on Tuesday to arrest him and brought him before police officers at Mponela where a statement was recorded and locked into custody.
Mponela Police Station’s Publicist Macpatson Msadala said he needs to be given more time before he will respond to the media.
The suspect, Sainani Nkhoma hails from Chikuti 3 village in the area of Inkosi Mponela in the district.
The arrests of Sainani Nkhoma over insulting words against President Chakwera has become a subject of discussion by Mponela residents that it is true that the man deserve to be arrested and charged for the offence as a lesson to the would-be offenders.
Mai Estery Mwale, a restaurant owner at Mponela Trading Centre has reminded Malawians that if there was a president who was insulted and castigated left and right in Malawi it was Professor Arthur Peter Mutharika but at no time, did he arrest anyone during his tenure of office.
She has also reminded Malawians of President Chakwera’s speech made at the Presidential breakfast when he interacted with media managers at Kamuzu Palace in Lilongwe that he has never ordered anyone to arrest anyone.
“I hope these MCP members have made the arrests by themselves not ordered by anyone, Sainani Nkhoma deserves to be forgiven and receive guidance and counseling for committing an offense unknowingly,” she said.
The woman said memories are still fresh that President Chakwera ordered for the release of a man of Ndirande Township in Blantyre who threw a stone at the presidential motorcade when Chakwera was rushing to Chileka International Airport to board a plane to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
According to prohibition of offensive communication Act, ”Any person who willfully and repeatedly uses electronic communication to disturb or attempts to disturb peace, quietness or right of privacy of any person with no purpose of legitimate communication whether or not a conversation ensues, commits a misdemeanor and shall, upon conviction, be liable to a fine of MK1 million and to imprisonment for twelve months”.
