Three Malawi’s Mangochi albino killers jailed 155 years

By Chisomo Phiri

BLANTYRE-(MaraviPost)-In what seems to be a tough punishment on albino perpetrators in the country, the High Court sitting in Mangochi on Wednesday May 11, 2022 sentenced three men to 155 and half years imprisonment with hard labour each for being found guilty of killing a person with albinism Saidi Dyton, 23.

According to Judge Mzondi Mvula, the three were found unclean in three offenses they were answering namely murder, which earned them 68 and half years, extracting human tissues, 48 and half years and trafficking in persons which they were slapped with 38 and half years imprisonment.

Mvula said the trio including James Pilo Khang’a, 71, Sumaila Umaila Nikisi, 45, and Gayesi Katupe, 44, all from Kadewere Village, Traditional Authority ( T.A) Chowe in Mangochi will serve the sentences concurrently.

They are said to have committed the crime on January 5, 2021.

Statistics show that since 2014, more than 170 albinos have been attacked in Malawi because of false beliefs that concoctions mixed with their body parts bring luck and wealth.

In some cases, grave robbers have exhumed corpses to retrieve albinos’ bodies.

In 2018 the government and the United Nations developed the National Action Plan on Persons with Albinism.

The plan is designed to discourage attacks and provide albinos with greater protection, in part by giving out security alarms.

The current population of people with albinism in Malawi is estimated at between 7,000 and 10,000, representing a ratio of 1 in every 1,800 persons.

Maravi Post Reporter

Op-Ed Columnists, Opinion contributors and one submissions are posted under this Author. In our By-lines we still give Credit to the right Author. However we stand by all reports posted by Maravi Post Reporter.