Malawi swear in Chasowa inquiry commissioners
Malawi President Mrs Joyce Banda has set into action an official inquiry into the mysterious death of a university student activist Robert Chasowa with the appointment of Commission of Inquiry as its officials were sworn-in on Friday at Mudi residence in Blantyre.
Chasowa, 25, was found dead on a pavement at the Polytechnic, the Blantyre-based constituent college of the University of Malawi. He was very critical of the Mutharika administration through a newsletter he was publishing.
Chairperson of the commission Justice Andrew Nyirenda of Supreme Court said they will find answers for the family and the Malawi nation and has promised to produce results.
“I know most commissions don’t come up with finding, the death of Chasowa will be uncovered and it will be known what killed our boy,” said Nyirenda.
Other commissioners are Mrs Mary Mangwiza Manyusa, pathologist Prof George Liomba, lawyer and ruling People’s Party member Paul Maulidi, Mrs Sophie Kalimba and civil servant Ben Mbewe.
President Banda asked the Commission “to get to the bottom of this matter.”
“As a mother, I know how painful it must be for Roberts family and a country as a whole, this is why this commission has been set up to know what killed him and why he was killed,” said Her Excellency Banda
The Malawi leader said she wants results of the inquiry soon and hopes that it does not prove to be failure as most commissions are.
Banda further said that finding answers will ensure that a thing like this never happens again in the country.
When Chasowa’s body was found on the Polytechnic campus, Police claimed Chasowa killed himself. The police went ahead to release two suicide notes to back their claims.
But family members and friends disputed this, saying Chasowa was never suicidal and denied the handwriting on the notes was that of the dead student.
Under pressure from the public, the police further released an autopsy report that showed he died from ‘a fall from a high place’, but the pathologist who purportedly said this denied authoring such a report.
When he finally issued the autopsy report, Prof. Charles Dzamalala said Chasowa died after being hit by a blunt object at the back of his head. He said most of his bones were intact, thereby disputing talks of a fall.
