Malawi govt rules out death penalty implementation on albino killers

Information minister Patricia Kaliati has ruled out that government  would implement the death penalty on killers of people with albinism, saying doing so would be contravening international human rights instruments Malawi signed.

Kaliati: No execution
Kaliati: No execution

Kaliati’s comments come hot in the heels of calls by Mulanje South MP Bon Kalindo to unleash the death penalty on the killers of albinism.

“Malawi is a signatory to many human rights instruments and we would not want to contravene them. We would not like a former head of state answering a case at the International Criminal Court over the death penalty,” she said.

Death penalty exists in the laws of Malawi but has not been used for many years.

It is believed former head of state Kamuzu Banda signed for the death penalty in the 1970s and the prisoner was hanged to death at Zomba Maximum Prison where the facility and the hanger man were based.

Kalindo said he will make a nude protest march on June 23 to force the courts and President Peter Mutharika implement the death penalty.

This is the first time that the government has made its position clear on the matter.

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chief activist
7 years ago

hon kaliati…..if yu hav nothing to sae….. be nothing…….do nothing sae nothing ………….

Mkuphwasika
Mkuphwasika
7 years ago

Human Rights imagwira ntchito kuno chifukwa cha umphawi.
Koma moti zikhale zoona kuti anthu adziko lanu aziphedwa ngati nkhuku chifukwa cha Human Rights?
DPP tsiku likwana muzisiya ndipo ngati si lero ndi mawa.

Kanthu Ako!
Kanthu Ako!
7 years ago

The same people advocating that the law be changed will be the first to cry foul when the death penalty is used on someone they know. Malawian are very selective. Laws are not passed for specific acts, the law should stand the passage of time. You can not be changing the law just to suit a situation, that is what was happening with the constitution during Muluzi, and we are still crying about how the constitution is weak. Why are people having a go at Kaliyati? is she the one that changes the law? DPP is a minority in parliament,… Read more »

Mgift
7 years ago

Kaliat knows who is behind this B BOSSES

The Analyst
The Analyst
7 years ago

O…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..O What you Kaliati are saying is utter nonsense! and complete rubbish! Yes even dogs have rights . . . . . . but what do we do to dogs that are vicious and/or rabied, and go about biting people?, if not kill them? And why are APM and you Kaliati complete hypocrites? Here in Malawi, we have the shoot-to-kill strategy in place . . . has Bingu or APM ever been taken to any court for implementing the shoot-to-kill strategy? Why should it be a problem this time around? Look at the U.S.; the wise and strong leadership in… Read more »

Gogodasi
7 years ago

Then why not repeal the law which is ineffective by all means?

Greencardless Malawian
Greencardless Malawian
7 years ago

THEN REMOVE IT COMPLETELY FROM THE PENAL CODE!!!!!!! WHAT IS IT THERE FOR? DECORATION?!!!

kanchenga
kanchenga
7 years ago

The fact of the matter is DPP is the major culprit here and we can’t expect them to kill their panda boys. Foreign forces have raided our land for our brothers lives and you are talking about signing foolish papers with some foolish idealistic. We know it you people killing our brothers for election rituals just like a chair was cutting women breasts in the lomwe triangle a few years ago. You killers signed that because you new you will need it’s protection. This is painful. Seeing an innocent person chopped like that and listening to another albino minister vomiting… Read more »

Mwananyanian
7 years ago

Owen Khamula: It is more than just belief that Kamuzu signed death warrants to many inmates, not just one, when he ruled this country like it was his household! That son of a gun! In Zomba, during the seventies and eighties, that Prison was known as the “incinerator” even by the wardens. Kamuzu signed death warrants for petty criminals and political dissidents, like they were chickens or goats from his own kraal. The whole prison community would know, by word of mouth, and the somber atmosphere, when someone was getting hanged today or tomorrow: The hangman or executioner was a… Read more »

Kachamba
Kachamba
7 years ago
Reply to  Mwananyanian

The “hangman”, sounds like an interesting job. Any vacancies?

kanchenga
kanchenga
7 years ago
Reply to  Mwananyanian

And you think this an excuse enough to allow our innocent brothers get hunted and butchered like mice. How can you be so foolish. We lived in that Malawi, I can assure you that those who died the way you describe here were his political enemies. They new what they were getting into that’s why they were able to run away some of them. Now where do you think our brothers will run to. You lomwes are blood drinking tribe that’s why you are not moved at all. Malawian we have talked enough let’s just burn these albino hunters when… Read more »

citizen
7 years ago

Abolish the act if inapplicable and in breach of human rights? By keeping the act you have already breached the human rights of the murders. Remember though that not protecting the albinos is also a breach of their human rights to life. So who are you protecting, the politicians who kill for rituals or the albinos?

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