Judge Ivy Kamanga slaps 2 men with death sentences for killing  child with albinism

High Court Judge Ivy Kamamga has sentenced two men to death for the gruesome murder of a nearly two-year child with albinism.

The child was killed in Chiziya village in Kusungu district on April 3 2016.

Convicted men have been identified as 30 year-old White Chilumpha (father to the deceased) and 23 year-old James Kanjira.

According to Kasungu Police spokesperson, Harry Namwaza, skull, teeth and clothes of the one year and 11 month baby were found 12 days later in Balantha Hill in the district.

He explained that after investigations, police arrested the child’s Chilumpha and other two suspects and levelled murder charges against them.

Namwaza said the law enforcers also recovered bones the accused had removed from the baby.

“After full trial, High Court Judge Ivy Kamanga convicted the duo and sentenced them to death.

“The High Court Judge also jailed the other convict, Laston Phiri, 24, to 10 years for being an accomplice in the murdering of the baby,” said Namwaza.

Judge Kamanga made the ruling on Friday in the district.

In 2016, Mzuzu High Court sentenced 33 year-old Samson Kaumba to life Imprisonment with Hard Labor for planning and nearly murdering a 11 year boy with albinism.

Judge Dingiswayo Madise  ordered Kaumba to spend the rest of his life in prison with no opportunity for parole.

Death sentence has been a controversial subject in the country for a long time.

The European Union (EU) described the death penalty as evil and urged Malawi to abolish it so that those accused should not feel rejected.

Malawi has laws that empower presidents to sign for the death penalty in murder cases. However, since attaining democracy in 1994, no president has ever signed the death penalty and in worst cases, most sentences have been commuted to life imprisonment.

In 2015, the High Court freed 25 convicts who were on death row following the court’s decision to rehear homicide cases at its Zomba District Registry through a Death Row Inmates Resentencing Project facilitated by MHRC.

The rehearing exercise followed a 2011 review of Section 210 of the Penal Code that declared mandatory imposition of death penalty unconstitutional after some people argued that they could not be on death row as Malawi did not provide the ultimate sentence.

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