Dark day in Blantyre: Muckraking Extra on Malawi Prison boss shooting sons

April 12, 2015 Raphael Tenthani 52 Comments

No doubt, the tragic happenings in Blantyre last Friday when an irate father, in a fit of rage, picked up his official gun and killed – execution style – his own two sons are as numbing as they are unfathomable.

Look, it is human nature to rush to condemn Senior Superintendent Evance Chisi for prematurely despatching to their maker 23-year-old Stanford and Russell, 29. How can a father be so evil?

But, wait a minute, there may be more to this tragedy than meets the eye. This might be the tragic tipping of a series of build-up issues.

This is no ordinary homicide case, no doubt about that. Chisi needs a thorough forensic psychiatric evaluation.

What made him snap? Preliminary investigations say he shot the first victim, Stanford, not once but twice. He did not stop there. He sought out the second victim, Russell, who was not even in the room and, therefore, we may safely say he was not involved in Stanford’s brawl with his sister, Lusungu.

Even to an untrained mind in things psychological or psychiatric, the early morning brother-sister brawl was just a trigger for things that have been welling up in the senior prison officer’s system.

Let investigators – both criminal and medical, for you cannot rule out one or the other in this tragedy – do a thorough job.

Having said that, the Blantyre unfortunate tragedy exposes a serious deficiency in our health-care system. In Malawi, most of us do not know we are seriously sick although the body may seem or feel healthy and fit. Our health-care system is ignoring one very important condition – mental health or psychiatry.

To most of us, mental health cases are only those where patients run naked, act bizarre or mumble incomprehensibles. But due to several factors, chief among them the worsening economic situation, most of us are depressed.

Malawi is sitting on a medical time bomb whose consequences may be worse than known major killers like malaria and the other usual suspects. Many Malawians are clinically depressed but they are not aware for our health-care system ignores such conditions. Depression is dismissed as one of those so-called ‘life-style’ diseases like BP.

Let the Friday tragic incident act as a wake up call and jog us into taking mind conditions like depression or dementia a bit more seriously.

Depression and other mind diseases, left untended, can lead to spasms of mood swings that only need a simple spark to trigger tragedy of the Friday morning Sunny Side proportions.

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52 replies on “Dark day in Blantyre: Muckraking Extra on Malawi Prison boss shooting sons”

  4. Please read this article with a sober mind. Mr Tenthani is not blaming or just making a mere comparison of Malaria and Psychiatric problem. The issue is true that one may be financially, physically, intellectually viable but psychologically sick. The majority of Malawians are sick. This sickness goes hand in hand with spirituality. Every person is made of soul, spirit and body. We are always concerned with the body neglecting the spirit. Wake up Malawians. We are sick.

  5. Very disappointing indeed., In this case what do we make of the death penalty, should such beasts be spared and waste tax payers money on their welfare in prisons?

  6. this is very sad . but as a parent going thru tough time with a grown up boy I ask God to take control and ask friends to help counseling both parties. with time i believe and truly believe come over.i believe the parent did his part and that some family members know what he was going through with the siblings. to some who are saying that how come that the grown up boys were still inthe house mmmh CHITSIRU CHILI NDI MWINI thats wahat i can say otherwise one cannot be happy to keep a grown up child inthe house not fending for him/herself. try somebody’s shoes and see how it fits bfo laughing at the bang bang step

  7. My heart goes out for the remaining members of this family, including Mr. Chisi.
    But Tenthani, please do not play doctor by attaching a “depression” label on the Mr. Chisis. Maybe he has major anger management issues, and something tipped the scale. Let the psychiatrists, no less, do their job.
    There are modern psychiatric drugs, with tolerable side effects; but the drugs are expensive. Very expensive. The government is NOT ignoring the problem of mental health; it is just prioritizing. These drugs are so expensive even in rich South Africa, the average person has no access to them. Psychiatry is a very fuzzy field (not derogatory remark), and treatments are often trial and error; as it is not like a bacterial infection where you can test the bacteria, and voila(!) – the treatment formula is there, and you have a 99% chance that it will work.
    Finally, it is ridiculous to compare mental heath with malaria, certainly in terms of their impact on our society. Way off-base comparison, indeed!

  8. Bambo wopusa zedi nanda bwanji osawapha ndi nkhonya bwanji not chipangidzo cha dziko nalo dziko lathu lingosunga anthu akale pamaudindo nzeru zawo zinatha kale si modzimiranso moto ai koma moyatsira moto skulu a midiku sno vuto nfi dziko lathu bupurrka mguti kwa munthu wosayenera wamisala vjonde asanayambe ntchito mudziwayedza kaye ngati ndiyenera kilandira mfuti

  9. The problem here was the age of the sons, they were old enough to be household masters but in their fathers house they had to be controlled like children no wonder there was rivalry between sons and their father. It must be a lesson to us all don’t keep children in your home when they have come out of age, tell them to learn to fetch for themselves even when the going looks tough.

  10. Any it was very pathetic for mr chisi to gun down his sons, I can’t judge him to that effect. I really understand what normally happens when there is persistent quarrel among your children. They elucidate something things which makes the parents feel bad and ashamed. I have example to that fact where parents died due to bp while trying to calm down his children who were at loggerheads. If children r from different mothers and they disagree on something they talk shit prompting the parent to intervene. I really know what mr chisi was feeling like on the material day. Take this for example our former speaker died after failing to calm down big people like mps in parliament. Let’s thing carefully over this. But one fact remain unchanged he has broken the law of land.Therefore the same law will take its course.

  15. A tenthani, mwalemba maganizo anu osati nkhanitu apa. Lembani nkhani tiwerenge pls.

  21. The other issue is that of weaning children form homes. At 29 somebody is still in his fathers and mothers house, what do you expect? A fully grown man that has to be treated as a child in the home is likely to resist and challenge authority. At 29 he should be stronger than the aging father and if this son was in unity with the 23 years old one against the father then your guess is as good as mine. the old man was in trouble. Tiwalere anawa with a view of making them independent at the earliest possible time and they should have their own homes where they control their own lives.

  22. Well put even though those that have gone mad have too little attention. I understand that we have only one doctor specialised in psychiatry what a pity. Some children go out of hand that they behave as animals. Well am not in support of Mr Chisi but some children were better not born.

  23. Yes it is true that people who r on ARVs lose tempers much faster than a normal person who is not on ARVs. This is bcoz when they notice that their physical appearance has changed they think everyone who looks at them know that they r HIV positive! The Police, the Army, Prisons, MRA and Immigration have the highest infection rates. Most of them have lost their spouces and r failing to bring up their children, the situation is even worse when they bring in a new wife/husband when there r grown up children in the house and there r no counseling services!

  24. ASAAAAAAAA…BY THE WAY,AS A NATION OF 15M PEOPLE HOW MANY COUNSELORS DO WE HAVE? NEVER HEARD OF THE STATISTICS, BUT AM SURE ITS HORRIBLE! POOREST NATION ON EARTH!

  28. Ana amasikuwano mwano, amawasowesa mtendele bambo awo, chenjezo kwa achinyamata anzanga,please respect your parents,and don’t smoke

  31. Yes! Our healthy stakeholders and other like minded people we need to define what is ‘ whole healthy’ and go beyond the concepts of ‘ whole health! ‘ In making effort to create and build sustainable and resilient health communities!

  32. Very true Raphael. I too feel very depressed and my mind snaps every time. I am so afraid of myself because I feel that one day I will kill one of the members of my family. I. Live in the first world where psychiatric care is available but I am afraid to say out loud the things,in my head. I am so scared, I don’t know how to begin, I don’t have the vocabulary to describe what it is I feel. I need help but I don’t know how to get it. I feel I am many persons within one splitting into various personalities at once. Full of anger one second, full of sympathy the nex. I feel like choking the life out of someone in a minute and the next I am so ashamed of my thoughts. what to do, how do you tell someone that you are insane and be believed?

  34. That is so, becouse, many bosses, think that, psychiatry, is an inborn disease. This is mental illness caused by Anxiety. This mean that, we have to refrain from causing such problems. Its my hope that, The almighty God, will actually guide, protect, preserve, and or keep safe the illedman.

  35. Comment Children need to be taught about love and they must grow seeing it between parents, they absence of love Satan comes in and he comes to stay and these are the fruits of fashion of leaving family on autopilot and busy with artificial happenings

    1. vVery true I like the information shared by Raphael, most of these thing’s are happening due to the development currently the country is undergoing. This is really not normal.

  37. it’s true mental health is neglected in MW, we forget that there is no health without mental health.

  42. i agree with u on the less concern as nation we have regarding mental health…we tend to show negative attitude to people who are mentally ill and we show less concern to taking care of people who have psychiatric conditions. however, our when u consider the health care system it is all to do with priorities we set; how much do we invest in training and infrastructure for psychiatry. clearly it is lagging behind when u look at the investments elsewhere within the healthcare system and yet as the author alludes to it z indeed a ticking bomb. a lot more people are distressed nowadays and if no interventions are deliberately implemented then wr may be heading towards a catastrophe.

  44. true. enafe tikachitika mwayi timapulumukira ku church. Bible likatipangako comfort basi koma these issues are there koma we dont find health support. Zipatala zipezeke basi zothandiza pa nkhani zoterozo.

  46. Ralph zoona ngakhale kuti anthu timathamangila kukayezetsa HIV and Aids komano ndithu pakufunika kumayezanso m’mitu kuti tiziona ngati munthu ali bwino chifikwa kupanda kutelo zotsatila zake ndi zoophsya.

  48. this is true, let alone depression in married women, we just take things for granted- we got ankhoswes whose word is always -kapilileni- tell me are they afraid to tackle the issue or fear of embarrassing the husband if they let go the wife.? or what.
    we got lots of married women suffrind depression alone
    hot issue

  49. The sister and the immediate family needs psychiatric care. Two lost brothers and a jailed dad.
    But as said in the article, the health care system doesn’t cater to those needs.

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