Chasowa Commission sworn in
Malawi President Joyce Banda on Friday swore in a six-member commission of inquiry into the death of a fourth-year Polytechnic student Robert Chasowa who was found dead at the campus in Blantyre.
Banda told the commission it was clear Chasowa was brutally murdered and the commission was only required to investigate and establish what happened for Malawians to know the truth.
Banda said Chasowa’s death devastated her because the deceased was a gift to the Chasowa family and the nation considering that he was in his fourth year at the university. Members sworn in included chairperson of the commission Supreme Court of Appeal Judge Andrew Nyirenda, pathologist professor George Liomba, former commissioner of police Mary Mangwiza Manyusa and former Justice minister Paul Maulidi and retired senior civil servant Ben Mbewe. Another member, Sophie Kalimba, was not present and will be sworn in later.
The President appealed to Malawi Police Service to act on its own on other suspicious death of suspects that died in police cells, adding most of these incidences happened within the same period Chasowa was murdered. Chasowa was found dead on September 24 last year.
The late president Bingu wa Mutharika indicated he was going to institute a commission of inquiry on Chasowa, but he did not.
