Albino murders: Kachama, Mutharika wasting our time

“We hear they are sending the army to Mulanje to protect the mountain from having trees cut down. We are being killed every day and no special protection is coming for us.”’—Alex Machila, Association of People Living with Albinism (APAM), The Nation, May 18 2016

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On Monday next week, we, Alhajj Sheikh Jean-Philippe LePoisson, SC (RTD); the Most Paramount (MP) Native Authority Mzee Mandela; Abiti Joyce Befu, MG 66;  our newest friend, the Retired Principal Secretary (RPS), and I, the Mohashoi, are joining Salimans and other concerned people from across this great federal republic in marching to Police Headquarters, popularly known by Cashgate Citizens as Area 30, to demand the immediate resignation of the Inspector General of Police, Lexten Kachama, for gross negligence of duty and for participating in an authorised street march.

As far as we are concerned, the police have the responsibility of protecting every citizen, every resident, and every visitor found in Malawi without recourse to geographical location of that person’s residence or home of origin, colour of skin, disability status, socio-economic status, marital orientation and political affiliation.

We appreciate that inspectors general of police are appointed by the president of this federal republic in exercise of his or her Constitutional powers as Commander-in-Chief of the Malawi Police Service. We are aware that the president tries to promote the most capable and trustworthy senior police officer to lead other police officers in protecting this federal republic from potential and hardcore criminals and other unpatriotic homo erectus.

However, in our considered view, it is not always an obligation for the inspector general of Police to be on the presidential motorcade while albinos and other unfortunate Malawians are being hacked to death and their bodies being deboned for a trade whose benefits this country has not seen; or has it?

It is our conviction that, strategically deployed, the Malawi Police Service has enough officers to protect us all. If the police service is able to line the 700-kilometre (km) Blantyre-Cashgate City route with officers to salute the presidential motorcade every 500 metres it can comb every home and catch the albino murderers, sellers and buyers.

If the police service is able to allocate five traffic officers to search one minibus, it can protect the 10 000 strong albino community.

It is our belief that the police service should not be wasting its time on marches against the killing of Albinos. Instead of participating in these ‘illegal’ street marches, that is marches not cleared by the police as is required for all marches, the police must use the leads provided by those convicted of the Albino murders to get to those who commission the killing, do the killing or abduction, do the selling and participate in the buying of dead or living albinos.

Some albino murderers recently told a court in the Republic of Dowa (or Ntchisi?) that they sold the albino bones to a businessperson based in Cashgate City. Why has that business person not been arrested and arraigned before the instruments of our federal justice?  Kachama should stop wasting our time and shut up until he arrests all the participants in the albino trade.

Real police officers don’t talk against criminality; don’t march against criminality; and don’t pray against criminality. Instead, they act swiftly and arrest the criminals and take them to court.

To prove that he is worth his post and its attendant benefits, Lexten Kachama should arrest the commissioners, killers, sellers and buyers of albinos between today, Saturday and tomorrow, Sunday. And we will call off our demonstration. Otherwise, he must resign immediately or face the Salima ‘democracy army’ that toppled that arrogant and allegedly corrupt chief.

The commander-in-chief of the Malawi Police Service, President Peter Arthur Mutharika (PAM), too, should stop wasting our precious time by asking us to pray against the murder of our fellow citizens. He has all the instruments in his hands to find the killers, sellers and buyers of albinos.

We will not call for PAM’s immediate resignation because he has entrusted the job of protecting us to police Inspector General Lexten Kachama.