Chakwera’s guard arrested over trade in body parts of people with albinism

March 28, 2019 Nyasa Times Reporter Be the first to comment

Weeks after Malawi Congress Party (MCP) president, Lazarus Chakwera dared that once voted into power, he will end the abductions and killings of persons with albinism within a month, his personal guard has been arrested for attempting to sell albino bones and a human uterus.

Chakwera: I know buyers of body parts for people with albinism are there

Dekhani Kamphamtengo, 41, from Kasinje village in the area of chief Kalumbu, Lilongwe was arrested on 20 March in what unfolds like a Hollywood movie.

According to a police report seen by Nyasa Times, Kaphamtengo approached someone that he was looking for a buyer of albino human parts. But the person instead tipped police believing that he would receive the K5 million government  reward which President Peter Mutharika announced.

“They agreed to meet the suspect at city centre Golden Peacock Hotel with the officers who posed as buyers and offered to buy the said human tissues at K5 million,” reads the confidential police situation report dated March 27, 2019.

Having received the tip, Sub-inspector  R. Kalawire and other officers mounted a smart operation and posed themselves as possible buyers. They met Chakwera’s guard at Golden Peacock in the City Centre of Lilongwe. The seller told them that he would take them to his home where the parts were not knowing that he was being secretly recorded.
On record, Kamphamtengo, who comes fro, Kasinje Village, Traditional Authority Kalumbu in Lilongwe, assured the police officer that the bones and womb were available at his house in Kawale.

However, according to the report, the Police officers who posed as buyers did not find the alleged body parts when they went to the house of the suspect after arresting him.

National Police spokesperson James Kadadzera confirmed the arrest adding that the suspect works as a security guard at Chakwera’s Area 10 residence according to the recorded statement.

Police also noted that Chakwera tried to secure an expensive lawyer  Donvan  Silungwe to defend the guard.
He appeared before the Lilongwe Magistrate’s Court on the same Wednesday, 27 March when the lawyer  came in company  of Nick Chakwera who is the son to MCP President.
Police  pressed a  charge of  “publication of false news likely to cause fear and alarm to the public; that’s Section 60 of the penal code”.

Chakwera recently has challenged President Peter Mutharika to put an end to killings and abductions of persons with albinism in the country.

Since November 2014, the number of reported crimes against people with albinism in Malawi has risen to 152, including 25 murders and more than 10 people missing, according to Association of People with Albinism (Apam).

As part of the National Action Plan (NAP)  to protect those living with albinism, government is on a crackdown on perpetrators and according to police sources, more arrests are looming.

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