Malawi women politicians in united front against political terror: Demand arrest of  thugs

Wife to State vice-president Mrs Mary Chilima has told women politicians to protect each other in the wake of attacks by Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) youth cadets against the opposition as women politicians are demanding the immediate arrest of the regime thugs.

Mary Chilima said this on Tuesday  morning when she attended a crisis meeting of women politicians in Lilongwe organized after a women member of the UTM Party was stripped naked in Mangochi.

“We need to help each other, we need to protect each other during this campaign time,” said Chilima, whose husband, Saulos Kalus Chilima, is the president of the UTM.

Also present at the meeting was Veronica Kapanga, a UTM member who was stripped naked by the DPP thugs in Mangochi on Sunday.

Women politicians  from all political parties, including the UTM, the Malawi Congress Party (MCP), the DPP, the Peoples Party (PP) and the United Democratic Front (UDF) attended the meeting in their party regalia and spoke the same language of non-violence against the women politicians.

Leader of Women Caucus in parliament Jessie Kabwila has given the government seven days to respond to their concerns, saying failure which they would match to the Office of the President and Cabinet, the police headquarters and the Malawi Human Rights Commission (MHRC) offices.

The Malawi Women in Politics are demanding an immediate arrest of the DPP thugs.

“President Peter Mutharika should live up to his responsibility as a He for She Champion,” said Kabwila.

The stripping of the UTM of her clothes followed a weekend of terror by the DPP terrorists

The use of terror by the DPP has been severely condemned by opposition politicians as well as Public Affairs Committee and human rights activists.

Since the beginning of this year, suspected DPP cadets have assaulted UTM Party director of youth Bon Kalindo in Mulanje, harassed and forced party supporters to undress in Mangochi at the weekend, and beat up Malawi Congress Party (MCP) supporter Edward Govati in Blantyre.

As the news conference came to an end and the women were dispersing, women clad in DPP regalia stormed the place where the women politicians were addressing reporters.

It was not immediately known the DPP women wanted to physically attack the fellow women politicians but this is a sign that Malawi is heading towards a rough road to the May 21 highly contentious and unpredictable polls.

Meanwhile, the Malawi Electoral Commission (MEC) and Malawi Law Society (MLS) have warned that failure to address the issue of violence could have a negative bearing on the outcome of the elections.

Further, MLS has questioned why Malawi Police Service (MPS), whose officers sometimes are within the vicinity of the heinous acts and appear in video clips of some incidents, does not bring the perpetrators to book.