Malawi Police Service (MPS) says it has no new leads in the case of the missing boy with albinism, Joseph Kachingwe who went missing in Phalombe.
Spokesperson of MPS, James Kadadzera, said this in an interview with Maravi Post, saying the Police are yet to find out the whereabouts of the 12 year old boy.
According to Kadadzera so far they have arrested 8 people who are suspected to have been involved in the boy’s disappearance.
Kadadzera further said among the suspects are the boy’s mother and his step father.
“We are still searching for the boy who went missing in Phalombe, so far we have 8 people in our custody who we suspect that they took part in the disappearance of the 12 year old boy,” Kadadzera said.
The National Police Spokesperson further said that the Police have put in place strategies of making sure that persons with albinism are protected from the abductors.
He assured the general public that they are doing all they can to find the whereabouts of the young albino boy.
“We are working with the people in the community where the boy was living and I can assure the general public that we have employed all measure so that we found the whereabouts of Joseph Kachingwe who went missing in Phalombe,” He added.
Police reports indicates that Joseph Kachingwe went missing on 6 July in Phalombe district where he went out with his friends to celebrate that Malawi has marked 54 years of independence.
Different Political parties joined hands in the fight against Albinism
LILONGWE (Maravi Post)—The Malawi Police at Kanengo Model station has commended stakeholders in its operating area for the support they are rendering in the fight against albino killers.
This follows the success of the police parade and marching the station organized aimed at sensitizing the general public on evils of attacking people with albinism.
The parade attracted religious, youth, cultural, groups, companies, communities and political parties mesmerized by speeches, dances, demonstrations on how best people with albinism can be protected from barbaric attacks they are facing.
The exercise was part of the response to last month’s Civil Society Organization (CSOs) petition presented to the Inspector General (IG) of the Malawi Police Service to do more in protecting albino. Consequently, the station launched campaign with the aim of sensitizing members with practical information on the myth that sleeping with an albino person makes one get cured from HIV/AIDS.
Apart from that, the station which is the country’s model in the SADC region in promotion of child and women rights was also in sensitization campaign against domestic violence particularly for children in primary schools on how best they can be protected from various abuses including rape, torture, and school corporal punishment among others.
Speaking in an exclusive interview with The Maravi Post, Denis Katuya, Senior Assistant Commissioner and Kanengo Police Station’s In-Charge hailed all stakeholders for the timely support rendering to the station saying it has smoothened their operation.
Katuya said the campaign will go a long way to change people’s mindset on myth they have on albinos whose safety is to be guaranteed.
“The campaign against albino killers is working perfectly here as all stakeholders including youth, religious groups, companies, and political parties have received the exercise wholeheartedly through material and financial support “
“We want a free society from albino attacks. Albinos are our own brothers and sisters. Therefore, subjecting them to any torture is a violation of human rights which must not be entertained by any means. The campaign will go on till the whole operation area is fully sensitized,” said Katuya.
Albert Kamalo, a representative of industrial companies and Kanengo Police Station Joint Patrol Initiative (JPI) Vice Chairperson assured the station of the continued support towards the exercise that any material and financial assistance needed will be provided saying people with albinism require more than protection.
The biggest mistake we are making in our response as a nation to the killings of people with albinism is to think that the heart of the problem is the perpetrators’ ignorance of the truths and realities of albinism. This is a dangerous assumption and the reason the killings and abductions are continuing unchecked and with impunity especially since 2014 onwards. Although ignorance is certainly playing a role in this tragedy, it is only in a supporting role. It is not the main actor.
The main villains in this drama are greed, poverty and a worsening social-economic environment; and the hero is supposed to be action- not demonstrations and awareness campaigns. Perpetrators of this crime know fully well that people with albinism are humans too and that what they are committing is a serious crime. Their motivation is not leisure based, or facilitated by some sort of complacency over issues to do with humanity. They are poor and greedy, and they believe that committing this crime is a sure shortcut to great riches.
Now, the government’s response to increases in general crime such robberies and thefts in the neighbourhoods is not usually to march in protest or stage awareness campaigns. Neither is the United Nations or any donor’s helpful support in response to the crime problem of any country a funding of crime awareness campaigns in that country. What we usually see when crimes of any kind go up are strategies for action, and then the implementation of those strategies. We see the police receiving funding to obtain more and better equipment to fight crime. We see more police in the streets well quipped to deal with the crimes. We see more police patrols in the night and a generally raised police presence especially in the areas designated as crime hot spots. Police use their criminal intelligence skills to investigate perpetrators and round them up, interrogating them to reveal who their accomplices are, or who the masterminds are behind the scenes.
Donors come with special police training programs to train the police on how to deal with such specific crimes. Sometimes, police will identify the criminals’ so-called “fences” – these being the people that buy stolen goods or otherwise help the criminals in disposing their crime-gained assets – and find ways of taking them out of play, thereby reducing motivation for the criminals to continue stealing and robbing things they cannot “move”.
There is a place for awareness campaigns and demonstrations. For instance, if Malawians males are not aware of the dangers of prostate cancer and the need to have regular medical check-ups, then an awareness campaign on this issue is relevant and can most likely bring about the desired change of mind-set. If Malawian females are unaware of the importance of having regular pap smears to reduce the risk, or have an early detection of cervical cancer, then an awareness campaign certainly fits the bill for useful action on that particular issue.
There is also a place for mass protests or demonstrations- naked or otherwise. When academic freedom is threatened at Chancellor College, university lecturers taking to the street, preferably dressed, to demonstrate against their freedom to teach and lecture without fear and intimidation is certain warranted, and can even force the head of state to change his mind on the subject.
But where crime is being committed through greed and total disregard of the law and what is needed is action, an awareness campaign parading the victims or potential victims could backfire into simply a showcasing to the perpetrators that their financial goldmine maintains yet unexplored and unexploited reserves.
In this regard, I would like to see a study, perhaps, which demonstrates that the recent awareness shows that were conducted across the country this past week will actually stop or even reduce the plight that people with albinism are facing. In my view, these charades served the organisers more than they helped the victims and potential victims, and I suggest that it is time to seriously reconsider our methods. We need to be careful not to use the plight of people with albinism to score cheap political points and gain political capital.
Additionally, the other cliché response to any serious issue that the country faces is to hold national prayers. The thinking, apparently, is that Malawi is a God-fearing nation and must turn its problems to God especially in times of crisis. Nothing is impossible with God, so the thinking goes, and so, miraculously, God will change the minds of all killers of people with people albinism towards him and the problem will go away. This kind of thinking is stupid. It fails to understand the forces of good and evil that control the spiritual realm of life and of the world and deliberately forgets that we have been praying for economic affluence as a nation for over 50 years now, and yet we remain one of the poorest nations on God’s good earth! Don’t get me wrong. I believe in God. But my understanding of the God I believe in is that he wants me to participate in dealing with the problems my nation or I am facing rather than simply wait for him to perform a miracle.
It is a disturbing, and indeed somewhat pathetic to see that as people with albinism continue to be massacred, their president and government, and the people that are supposed to help deal with the problem hands on are content to have awareness campaigns, public demonstrations of their disapproval, and prayers.
People with Albinism are facing extinction because of crimes perpetrated with impunity by people that have total disregard for the Law, for God, and for whatever speeches you may make at public awareness campaigns. Our response should be simple and decisive: more police in the locations looking after these people. We could perhaps even have heavily guarded safe houses for them to live in and have special guards and vehicles to transport them around the way we do with our rapidly devaluing Kwachas when transporting them from the Reserve Bank in Lilongwe to Blantyre. The so-called markets for the parts of the victims should be investigated vigorously and shut down. Malawian lives are at stake here. I will not let anybody tell me we do not have the money or the resources to do such things. For starters, if we cannot afford to build such a safe house just now, give them some of the state houses that are even now vacant and almost dilapidating for lack of use!
Malawi President Peter Mutharika posing with Albinos
President Peter Mutharika is getting increasingly averse to criticism and sometimes unnecessarily so.
We have a situation in this country in which Malawians born with albinism are being hunted down like dogs and slaughtered for their body parts because some pervert with an extremely evil mind and intentions has created demand for it.
To stop the killings Police would have to trace the source and cut it. On account of what is happening on the ground the Malawi Police Service has been unable to do this.
All they have done is to arrest ‘small fish’ at the end of the chain. Why these have not led them to the origin of this macabre scheme beats the hell out of me.
But it is because of this failure that the killings have not stopped and everyday gone, we hear of new arrests.
A report by global human rights watch, Amnesty International (AI), captures this colossal failure and it aptly puts it that our government is failing to protect the right to life “for this vulnerable group and to guarantee their right to security of person”.
But while at it, the body was quite fair, stressing: “Senior government officials, including the president, have publicly condemned the attacks against people with albinism and announced a number of measures, including the appointment of a special legal counsel to assist with investigations and the adoption of a National Response Plan.
“However, these measures have failed to stop the violence. Some perpetrators have been arrested, charged and convicted, but the majority of crimes remain unresolved. Charges and penalties often have not been commensurate with the gravity of the crimes, creating a sense of impunity.”
This could not have been further from the truth and I thought government and the Police would swallow the bullet and find ways of reversing the trend so that Malawians with albinism should feel safe in their own motherland.
But the President weighed in on Tuesday at Kamuzu Palace maintaining that his government is doing everything possible to protect persons with albinism despite the report by Amnesty International.
As usual he hit the roof and went ballistic demanding from Amnesty International officials who went to see him an explanation on media reports that his government has failed to protect the rights of persons with albinism.
The reason for his forthrightness being that he was once Foreign Affairs Minister and that he knows the repercussions of such reports in the mind of the international community.
Embarrassingly, the President’s fuss forced Amnesty International Director for Southern Africa Debros Muchena to scamper for the safe corner, diplomatically offering an explanation that his institution was not exactly saying Malawi has failed to protect the rights of persons with albinism.
It is clear Muchena said this to please the President and save the moment plus his blushes.
This is so because his report further states that the Malawi Police Service lacks the capacity to carry out thorough investigations, leading to frustration in communities which creates a risk for mob justice.
“Poor police investigations may also have allowed perpetrators of murders to avoid facing serious charges, particularly in cases where suspects were arrested in possession of human bones,” adds the report.
I do not know what is wrong with the State House because its occupants like to live in denial as the President is clearly doing.
The question his scholarly mind must digest is: If his government has done mighty enough and well on albinos, why is it that they still get killed on daily basis?
I do not want to stretch to other things in which presidential denial has been dangerous and cost lives such as the economy and food shortage. This is a story for another day.
Suffice to end that while you and I can afford to be in denial that can cost us one thing or the other, the presidential one affects all Malawians.
This is my worry with Mutharika’s new found aversion to criticism.
Another individual with albinism was brutally killed, in Ntcheu. Another innocent soul gone too soon. This young person is part of over 50 reported killings people with albinism in Malawi. The Malawi Government, CSOs, NGOs and people of Malawi have joined hands to fight against this inhumane act.
One question that people still ask is, why is it that despite the advocacy, we still have new cases reported almost every week? In my previous article, ‘hands of people with albinism in Malawi’, I touched on the issue of looking at the inhumane act, as a system that has buyers, middlemen/vendors, and sellers. I then argued that to effectively eradicate this practice, the final buyers have to be identified, and brought to justice. We have to cut the head of the snake, and not the tail.
In this article, I argue that individuals, organizations, and the media, need to stop playing the role of a marketer for the buyers, middle and sellers of body parts of people with albinism.
In 2014, the Malawi Government, warned people that they will be arrested, if they call a person with albinism ‘Dhilu (Source of income).’ This was after they discovered that the language used in personal interpersonal communication has the potential to fuel the practice the abduction, killing, and exhumation of the remains of people with albinism.
This was after; media reports started covering the issue of the killing of people with albinism and the reasons why people do so. The journalists, in trying to present a complete story covers all aspects involved to provide a comprehensive picture. However, individuals would only pick the part about ‘charms and the money.’
This begs the question; what kind of language are we using in our daily conversations? Does it in any way hint on the perceived benefits of killing and exhumation of the remains of people with albinism?
In April 2016, local media houses covered a suspect who explained that they are people who offer ‘K1.1 billion for bones of people with albinism.’ I, find the sharing of this information to be among the factors that fuel the killings. Because you are essentially telling the people involved in the act, that any person with albinism that they see, is a potential K1.1 billion. This puts a target on any person with albinism. The more we share this information, is the more we are putting the lives of people with albinism in Malawi and across, southern Africa in danger.
To even make matters worse, the coverage further, exposes the weaknesses in the laws. This is even giving more reasons for those involved in this inhumane act to continue. Because essentially, we are saying, there is a market, and you can get away with it.
They are organizations that are conducting awareness campaigns in communities. This is very commendable and must continue. The question however is; what kind of message are these organizations sharing? Is there a chance that in raising awareness about the inhumane act, you might also be throwing an advert for people who are buying the body parts of people with albinism?
I, therefore, believe that in the process of looking for ways to deal with the vice, we might want to check the information that we provide to the general public. We need to ask, what are some of the unintended effects that this information might have on the lives of people with albinism?
Chimwemwe John Paul Manyozo, is a Malawi Student at University of Sussex, in Brighton, UK
BLANTYRE-(MaraviPost)—Theologian, Educationist and Social development scientist, Qeko Jele, has taken a swipe at Non-Governmental Organizations for being in deep slumber while Albinos are brutally butchered.
Jele, in his article titled ‘Workable solution to end Albino killings in Malawi,’ suggests that NGO’s joint advocacy against Albino killings could be one way of curbing the malpractice but to his surprise some human rights campaigners have chosen to be silent.
“NGO’s joint advocacy against Albino killings is what is needed in Malawi at the moment. Amazingly not all Human Rights NGOs are condemning the killing of Albinos in Malawi. Those NGOs that used to leading in demonstrations are this time silent when Albinos are brutally butchered.
“Albinos have been left alone to fight for their survival while human rights organizations with huge funding are not doing anything. This is an irony and a surprise in human rights activism in Malawi today,” reads the article in part.
Jele, in the article, has suggested six approaches if Malawi is to end Albino killings: a need for a presidential decree over the matter, MPs constituency advocacy, review of the laws, empowering the traditional leaders and NGO’s joint advocacy.
Cases of Albino killings in Malawi have reached centre stage. The number of people living with albinism who have been abducted and killed in Malawi has now reached 17 in the last two years, according to officials.
The situation has now reached crisis proportions with President Peter Mutharika admitting that it was a challenge facing the nation.
“It is disheartening to learn of the rising incidences of abductions, killings and exhumations of the remains of people with albinism,” bemoaned Mutharika, during an audience he had with people living with albinism in Lilongwe weeks ago.
Just this year alone, six albinos namely, David Fletcher Machinjiri, Jenifer Namusyo, Enelesi Nkhata, Whitney Chilumpha, Eunice Phiri and Harry Mokoshini had been murdered in various parts of the country.
Malawi breaking news and World News. News about Malawi, Malawi Business, Malawi Tourism, Malawi Politics, Malawi News, World and Africa Top News.
The biggest mistake we are making in our response as a nation to the killings of people with albinism is to think that the heart of the problem is the perpetrators’ ignorance of the truths and realities of albinism. This is a dangerous assumption and the reason the killings and abductions are continuing unchecked and with impunity especially since 2014 onwards. Although ignorance is certainly playing a role in this tragedy, it is only in a supporting role. It is not the main actor.
