IT guru Chiwoni bail bid rejected:  Malawi High Court theft

Senior Blantyre Resident Magistrate Court on Friday denied bail to Kumbukani Chiwoni, who was arrested on Friday after being suspected of playing a hand into the theft of 15 court hard disk drive from computers.

Chiwoni, aged 29, is the IT Manager for the Malawi High Court, according to Blantyre Police.

The items, including CPUs, hardware mother boards, memory chips, heat sinks and hard drives, are suspected to have been stolen  when the High court premises where sealed following the protracted industrial strike judiciary support staff stage to press for salary increment.

Presiding senior resident Magistrate Viva Nyimba told the jam packed court that it will not work within the interest of justice if the court grant bail to Chiwoni.

Nyimba immediately  ordered the Malawi Police Officers to go and conduct thorough search in the house of Chiwoni and that the Police should report the same to the court within the same day.

He then acquitted the security guards who were arrested alongside Chiwoni, saying the guards cannot have the technical expertise to open the computers and know the hard drives.

The court later reconvened at night where the  police reported that they had found only connector cables in the house of Chiwoni house the police said it was not known whether the cables belongs to the High Court Computers.

During the same court night session, Nyimba repeated that giving bail to Chiwoni will jeopardize investigations.

Nyimba then ordered the Malawi Police to conduct further investigation and that they should report back on Monday.