{"id":71780,"date":"2025-07-13T09:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-07-13T09:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/malawi\/all-news\/ghosts-of-msundwe"},"modified":"2025-07-13T09:00:00","modified_gmt":"2025-07-13T09:00:00","slug":"ghosts-of-msundwe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/malawi\/all-news\/ghosts-of-msundwe","title":{"rendered":"Ghosts of Msundwe"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Malawi. <\/strong><\/span>A mob stoned a police officer to death. Then there came allegations of a bunch of police officers invading a community and raping women in revenge for the killing of their colleague. Two subsequent investigations clashed on the findings, so another government body decided to conduct an own probe. Four years on, there is zero progress <\/b>By Leah Malekano: <\/b><\/p>\n

Four years down the line after the Independent Complaints Commission (ICC) announced it would conduct a separate investigation into the Msundwe rape and defilement case, nothing has moved since.<\/p>\n

It is largely due to the fact that government has not been releasing funding for the investigation.<\/p>\n

During a period of post-election protests in 2019, a mob from Msundwe in Lilongwe stoned to death a police officer, Imedi Usumani.<\/p>\n

Usumani and colleagues had been deployed to clear the Lilongwe-Mchinji Road of rowdy people from the community who were blocking traffic.<\/p>\n

Usumani led the police team. He was killed by stoning.<\/p>\n

In reaction to the violence, police officers invaded the area and reportedly defiled and raped 17 women in vengeance for the brutal killing of their colleague.<\/p>\n

However, two reports \u2013 one from Malawi Human Rights Commission (MHRC) and the other from the Malawi Police Service \u2013 contradicted each other in their findings.<\/p>\n

While the MHRC report said there had indeed been rape incidents, a police report gave a different version \u2013 that the cases were actually fabricated.<\/p>\n

In 2021, the ICC announced it would conduct an independent investigation altogether.<\/p>\n

The investigation was expected to be completed within three months (90 days).<\/p>\n

Today, four years on, there has been no such investigation.<\/p>\n

COMPLAINED ABOUT FUNDING\u2014Tukula<\/b>ICC Commissioner Christopher Tukula told Malawi News last month that they have been struggling to secure funding for the fresh probe since 2021.<\/p>\n

He said ICC had initially requested about K68 million from Treasury for the exercise but government did not provide the money.<\/p>\n

\u201cDevelopment partners promised to fund us, but they just went quiet.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow we are planning to use the yearly budgets that we get from the government to help us at least investigate the matter,\u201d Tukula said.<\/p>\n

He added that as an institution, they feel it is still important to conduct these investigations.<\/p>\n

However, he expressed concern that some victims and witnesses might have relocated and would need to be traced, which would also cost the institution even more.<\/p>\n

There was no immediate comment from Treasury on the funding issue.<\/p>\n

But the lack of movement on the matter is causing unhappiness to human rights activists.<\/p>\n

Centre for Human Rights and Rehabilitation Executive Director Michael Kaiyatsa said the government\u2019s failure to fund the ICC for the probe is unfortunate.<\/p>\n

It clearly shows a lack of political will on the part of the government, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is quite discouraging and disheartening, considering that this is an issue that involves women. It\u2019s unfortunate that there hasn\u2019t been closure to the issue and accountability.<\/p>\n

\u201cFour years is a long time. If this government had this issue at heart, they could have provided the needed funds,\u201d Kaiyatsa said.<\/p>\n

MALUNGA\u2014We can\u2019t operate in a vacuum<\/b>On the other hand, legal expert Bernadette Malunga said the lack of movement on the matter shows that government does not treat it as among its priorities.<\/p>\n

She said issues of sexual harassment, human rights abuses or violations of women\u2019s rights are serious matters that should not take a long time to investigate or act upon.<\/p>\n

She said independent investigations are needed \u201cbecause we have to have accountability of the issue and know the outcomes of the investigations, and recommendations are made and acted upon.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe can\u2019t operate in vacuums; we need information, and this information can only come from investigations that are credible and conducted by an independent institution,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

MHRC Executive Secretary Habiba Osman said that the Commission is not comfortable with the fact that the investigations have not happened.<\/p>\n

She said matters that arose at that particular time were very sensitive human rights violations that needed to be addressed.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf ICC has to go deep into reviving the case or opening the files, it means they have to trace the victims and witnesses. That is also our major concern on the delays. It will be very interesting to find some of those witnesses to see how they fared over a period,\u201d said Osman.<\/p>\n

In its investigation report dated February 2020, the Malawi Police Service doubted the rape claims, describing some of the claims as \u201cmake-up stories\u201d, \u201cfalse\u201d and without \u201csufficient\u201d and \u201ccorroborating\u201d evidence.<\/p>\n

The report said that the said rape victims were coaxed into making the claims by some politically-connected individuals\u2014with a lawyer, a Member of Parliament and local area politicians being the masterminds.<\/p>\n

The police investigation came after MHRC\u2019s which took place two weeks after the incident.<\/p>\n

In its report, the MHRC said in the course of operations of clearing the road, controlling the crowds and making arrests, some police officers ventured into the villages and nearby locations, throwing teargas into houses, beating people and breaking into houses and raping women.<\/p>\n

According to MHRC investigation which was led by commissioners Martha Chizuma and Rosemary Kanyuka, a total of 17 women were sexually violated.<\/p>\n

In reaction, the Women Lawyers Association instituted civil proceedings on the matter.<\/p>\n

In his ruling on August 13, 2020, High Court Judge Kenyatta Nyirenda ordered the Malawi Police Service to compensate the women and arrest police officers implicated for the crimes.<\/p>\n

Nyirenda said the victims needed to be compensated for the trauma they suffered at the hands of the police.<\/p>\n

In July 2021, government announced it had shelled out K130 million compensation to the women.<\/p>\n

For More News And Analysis About Malawi<\/a> Follow Africa-Press<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Malawi. A mob stoned a police officer to death. Then there came allegations of a bunch of police officers invading a community and raping women in revenge for the killing of their colleague. Two subsequent investigations clashed on the findings, so another government body decided to conduct an own probe. Four years on, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":71779,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,12],"tags":[233,371,234],"class_list":["post-71780","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-policy","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-malawi","tag-malawi"],"yoast_head":"\nGhosts of Msundwe - Malawi<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/malawi\/all-news\/ghosts-of-msundwe\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Ghosts of Msundwe\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Africa-Press – Malawi. A mob stoned a police officer to death. 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