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.