Malawi govt rules out death penalty implementation on albino killers

Information minister Patricia Kaliati has ruled out that government  would implement the death penalty on killers of people with albinism, saying doing so would be contravening international human rights instruments Malawi signed.

Kaliati’s comments come hot in the heels of calls by Mulanje South MP Bon Kalindo to unleash the death penalty on the killers of albinism.

“Malawi is a signatory to many human rights instruments and we would not want to contravene them. We would not like a former head of state answering a case at the International Criminal Court over the death penalty,” she said.

Death penalty exists in the laws of Malawi but has not been used for many years.

It is believed former head of state Kamuzu Banda signed for the death penalty in the 1970s and the prisoner was hanged to death at Zomba Maximum Prison where the facility and the hanger man were based.

Kalindo said he will make a nude protest march on June 23 to force the courts and President Peter Mutharika implement the death penalty.

This is the first time that the government has made its position clear on the matter.