Parallel investigations on Njauju murder -Malawi rights commission

State funded Malawi Human Rights Commission has threatened to institute a parallel investigation into the death of a senior Anti Corruption Bureau (ACB) officer Issa Njauju.

The Malawi Human Rights Commission (MHRC) chairperson Justin Dzonzi said this on Wednesday in Lilongwe ahead of human rights day on Thursday.

Dzonzi wondered why the state is taking time to investigate the death of Njaunju and bring the killers to book despite promises by President Peter Mutharika and top government officials.

“We are monitoring the situation very closely with interest although we are giving the government the benefit of doubt,” he said.

Njaunju was killed six months ago and only one person has since been arrested prompting civil society organisations to threaten peaceful protests in Mangochi because of the slow pace at which the police are handling the matter.

Dzonzi, however, could not say how long his organisation is giving the state the matter before MHRC starts its own investigations to probe the police why they are failing to act with speed to investigate the matter.

“If it takes longer, we will institute our own investigations but we don’t want to interfere with the police investigations now, we are giving them a time limit,” said Dzomzi without disclosing the time limit.

He said failure by the state borders on rights violations.

Dzonzi further said Malawi is doing well on political rights which include freedom of press and expression and freedom of assembly as people can now make peaceful protests to make their cases heard to the government.

He however said Malawi is not doing well in economic freedoms partly because Malawi is a poor country.