Scuffle over mutilated baby in Mzuzu: Malawi Police rule out foul play

A brawl has ensued between Mzuzu Police and a family in Lusangazi, Nkhata Bay – on the outskirts of Mzuzu City – following mysterious circumstances surrounding the death of a baby who was born alive but was thirty minutes later found dead with a mutilated body.

Family members of Brenda Banda – mother to the deceased baby – have expressed their concern over the manner in which police and medical staff conducted themselves on the matter, suspecting foul play.

But Mzuzu Police spokesperson Maurice Chapola parried away the fears, citing natural death.

“A postmortem done at Mzuzu Central Hospital has shown that there was nothing fishy as regards the baby’s death. It was a natural death,” said Chapola.

However, speaking in an interview with Nyasa Times Thursday, one of the family members Rose Mbeye insisted there is eminent cover up.

“Brenda gave birth on Monday at Mzuzu Health Centre. She was shown her live child but thirty minutes she was told that the child was dead,” said Moyo.

She further explained that when they went to collect the body on Tuesday, they found that it was well wrapped up and were “not instructed to unwrap it but rather to bury it was it was.”

Suspicious, Moyo told Nyasa Times, the family unwrapped the body and found out that the face was mutilated.

Another impeccable source within the family alleged that the body was cut in such a way that the nose, eyes and lips were missing. Police are said to have been alerted of the matter, and the body was taken back to the mortuary at Mzuzu Central Hospital where a postmortem was done.

Chapola ruled out allegations on some body parts missing on the body.

“It was just some flesh missing around the stomach, and that could have been done by some insects or rats as Mzuzu Health Centre has no mortuary,” said Chapola.

But the family, who claim to have not yet seen the postmortem report, said the information police and medical staff are providing is not convincing.

“We are just from the hospital now [Thursday],” Moyo told Nyasa Times. “Nurses have been interviewed but there are many instances where their stories seem not to be making sense. They keep on saying that the face was mutilated by rats a thing we do not buy.”

She added: “As mothers we are not happy about this. We will not let this issue die away just like that. We will make sure a proper investigation is carried out on the matter.”

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