Malawi registers high mob justice cases — Police

Malawi Police Services said the country is registering high numbers of mob justice cases as compared to last year.

According to Deputy National Police Spokesperson Thomeck Nyaude, a total of 22 cases have been reported in just four months from January unlike last year where they recorded 29 mob justice cases the entire year.

Nyaude said the Central Region has recorded more mob justice cases than the other regions having 13 cases followed by the Southern and Northern Regions which registered 4 cases each. The Eastern Region registered only one case.

According to Nyaude, a total of 22 lives were claimed in all the cases that took place.

“Last year we had 15 cases of mob justice in the Central Region followed by Southern Region which had 13 cases of mob justice and lastly one case in the Eastern Region and we managed to convict 23 people,” he said

Nyaude said people take the laws into their hands because of anger or sometimes because they feel justice does not take its course but this is unlawful since it interfere with police investigations.

“People need to know that the issues of justice do not start and end with or by the police, the police only do the arrests and investigations and from there, the suspect is taken to court,” Nyaude said in an interview.

The Deputy Police PRO said suspects have rights to apply for bail and sometimes the court grants them the bail in line with the 48 hour rule of the laws of Malawi but when the public sees this, they accuse the police of not doing enough and in the end they resort to mob justice.

He said that in order to curb the malpractice, police are doing sensitization meetings to civic educate the public about the evils of mob justice because such acts are not helpful to Malawi as a nation.

Just over the weekend, three more cases of mob justice occurred across the country raising the number of cases even higher.

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