Commission starts hearing testimonies on Chasowa murder
A six-member Commission of Inquiry set up by President Joyce Banda to probe the brutal murder of a University of Malawi 4th year engineering student Robert Chasowa has started hearing testimonies from the public.
It has started barely a week after the swearing in of the last commissioner, Sophie Kalimba, a town planner and former Chief Executive of Blantyre City Council, who was abroad when her five
compatriots took oath on April 20th.
The commission, which is chaired by Justice Andrew Nyirenda SC, also has retired Police Commissioner Mary Mangwiza-Manyusa, pathologist Professor George Liomba, lawyer-cum-politician Paul Maulidi and administrator Ben Mbewe as members.
Hearing of testimonies started on Wednesday at Blantyre City Council Civic offices where the team interviewed various people to source information on what led to the mysterious death of the 25-year-old student and youth political activist.
“The hearing started Wednesday at the Civic Center offices in Blantyre and is on going. We have so far heard testimonies from a cross section of people and we can say so far so good,” one of the commissioners said Thursday.
President Banda appointed the Commission on April 10, barely three days after ascending to power, and appealed to the team to work with speed to establish the truth on the untimely death of the young
engineering student.
“I ask you to work with haste because Malawians are waiting impatiently to hear the truth on the death of our son,” President Banda told the commissioners during the swearing-in ceremony at Mudi House in Blantyre, adding that she would not allow Malawians to be killing each other carelessly and expect to go away with it.
Banda also challenged the commissioners to move swiftly and work with commitment as the entire country was eagerly waiting to know the truth of what exactly robbed the life of the student.
The student was found dead on September 24 last year in a pavement at the Polytechnic College campus in Blantyre and until now Malawians are still in the dark as regards the exact reason of his killing.
Immediately after his death, police announced that the student had committed suicide but as events spread-out it transpired that he might have been assassinated by the then ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) operatives masterminded by senior police officers following his political involvements in an anti-government publication and his Youth Freedom and Democracy, where he was the president.
Former President and leader of the DPP, Mutharika, indicated to the world that he would institute a commission of inquiry to establish the student murder but until his death on April 5 this year, the
commission never came into being raising more suspicions.
