On a
moderately mild afternoon of September 26, 1992, a well built white man in dark
glasses is driven into Zomba Maximum Prison in a Malawi Government Land Rover.
Clenching
his fists, he looks composed but determined to carry out a task on behalf of his
client. This is a task that no Malawian can dare carry out.
Wearing
a pair of tired jeans and a black short sleeved shirt, he alights from the car and
quickly straps a black bag on his shoulder. His mind is focused on one task so
he fails to notice a group of villagers wearing somber faces at the dilapidated
visitors’ prison longue.
Accompanied
by prison officers, he fades into a dark room at the Eastern corner of the
facility.
His “catch”
this afternoon is a man in his thirties who was convicted of murdering his
uncle in a land dispute in the Central Region district of Dowa.
The
“Executioner” readies himself by putting on a pair of black gloves and a brown
coat. He signals to four prison warders to walk back and give him some space.
The
client is standing on a wooden floor between two poles and has his head covered
with a black hood; 20 centimeters above his head is dangling noose.
Five
minutes later, the white guy is gone and there is no sign of life in gallows.
He closes the chapter for the last legal execution to take place within the
borders of Malawi.
Records
show that from 1972 to 1993 during Kamuzu Banda's dictatorship a total of 823
were sentenced to death. Out of the 823 convicts, 299 were executed and the
remaining ones either died in prison or were pardoned.
On
December 18, 2008 and December 21st, 2010, Malawi abstained on the Resolution
on a Moratorium on the Use of the Death Penalty at the UN General Assembly.
Two
years later, Malawi became a democracy again (It seems people don’t appreciate
that Kamuzu Banda initiated democracy in his first years in office)
The new
development automatically opened up a vibrant media forum and within that
period government planned to launch its own TV station in 1995.
However,
the deal fell through because it is rumored that the equipment that was
supposed to be donated here from Malaysia was diverted by one Gambian army
officer, Yahya Jammeh, who had grabbed power through a bloodless coup d’état.
We were
sleeping so we had to wait for three more years after the “theft” to have our
own TV station.
The
clever officer was quick to consolidate power through his cunning International
Relations schemes.
Since diverting
our equipment, Jammeh hasn’t been a fixture on our affairs but last week he
said something that cannot be ignored by leaders and policy makers world over
including our own Joyce Banda.
In his
recent speech, the Gambian leader- whose full name is “Sheikh
Professor Alhaji Dr Yahya AJJ Jammeh”- indicated that his government will
hang all the 47 people who are on death row. He did not elaborate but the world
started crying.
In
Malawi, at least 29 men and women currently sit on death row; however, no one
has been executed in the country since the 1992 scenario. Those sentenced to
death are entitled to a mandatory appeal in the Supreme Court
Judges
in Malawi can still sentence offenders to death; they handed down four or five
death penalties in 2010 and with only a few murder trials taking place in 2011
no death penalties were given. However, this year more murder trials are
expected in the High Court.
Why does
the world seem sympathetic with people who kill their fellow humans?
Human
Rights looked at critically; have you ever thought of the emotional pain that
people who lose their loved ones go through? Has any research been conducted to
hear their views on what should happen to those who gruesomely murdered their
loved ones?
What we seem to have created here is
a shadow Truth and Reconciliation Committee which seems to favour murderers
only.
Think of the people who are dying mercilessly
in recent months.
Think of the Msamala guy who was
gruesomely murdered by his houseboy in Soche East.
Draw your mind back to last year’s
gruesome murder of Robert Chasowa.
Have we asked their families what
they think should be done to the murderers should the courts find them wrong
and commit them to hang?
The truth is you can only advocate
for the rights of murderers if you haven’t lost a relative through such a
gruesome act.
Yahya Jammeh might have “stolen” our
TV equipment but there is sense in what he is saying about hanging death row
inmates.
