DPP MP threatens to march naked
- Kalindo says he feels albino killers treated with kid gloves
Troubled with what he calls government’s uninspiring approach in handling abductions and killings of people with albinism, Mulanje South member of Parliament (MP) Elias Bon Kalindo has threatened to march naked to push for the death sentence.
His warning comes barely a week after he also threatened to storm out of the National Assembly if the bill was not brought in the House for endorsement before the end of the current sitting for debate.
Kalindo, legislator for the governing DPP, has set out on an individual “bring back death sentence campaign” where, among others, he is lobbying fellow MPs to support his cause to retain the controversial law specifically targeting killers of people with albinism.
Although the country’s Constitution provides for a death penalty, all presidents in democratic Malawi have declined to sign execution orders to send those on death row to the gallows.
Kalindo, who is also deputy spokesperson for DPP, said in an interview yesterday he was set to walk naked if the House fails to provide the required attention to the matter.
“If it does not happen I will walk naked from Old Town [Lilongwe] to Parliament Building to show my fury and force it to happen with speed because we are not doing enough,” he said in an interview after earlier proclaiming the same on privately-owned Zodiak Broadcasting Station (ZBS).
However, the MP said he was consulting his lawyers on whether his planned naked march would not infringe on the ethics and rules of Parliament.
Said Kalindo: “I am even ready to be kicked out of Parliament because I feel it is high time we buried this issue once and for all. The law is there and we just need to put it into effect.”
He said he was not convinced as a legislator with the approach government has taken to stop the barbaric killings of people with albinism.
Said the MP: “I am a sorrowful legislator because of the manner in which we are handling the issue of killings and abductions of people with albinism. We have so far lost 18 people and this is not a joke.”
Since violence against people with albinism emerged in the country, there has been low self-esteem and exclusion from society among people with albinism while scores of children have withdrawn from school.
Currently, statistics indicate that Malawi has recorded 67 cases of albino victimisation, including seven killings, 14 kidnappings, three missing persons and 29 tampering with graves.
“This is a critical and sensitive matter requiring due priority,” lamented Kalindo.
While appreciating the support he has so far garnered from fellow MPs, Kalindo still expressed anger over other legislators reluctance to support the cause.
The MP also condemned government for planning to dispatch government officials to learn from Tanzania and Rwanda on how they dealt with the matter.
Last week, President Peter Mutharika announced he would send Inspector General of Police Lexten Kachama and his team to the two countries to learn how they contained the situation.
But Kalindo described the idea as “missing the point” and waste of resources.
Human rights activists and some major donors have been calling on government to abolish the death penalty saying it infringes on human rights.
But in 2014, Malawi told the United Nations Human Rights Committee in Geneva, Switzerland it had no intention to abolish it.
Does this guy know why his constituents sent him to parliament? Marching naked in the streets will not bring about an end to the senseless killing of people with albinism, last time I checked, despite the many failings of our government in the socio-economic aspects of our everyday lives, Malawi is still a country of laws, that despite the random mob justice cases that we hear about. So as a country of laws, Malawi has a judiciary with courts having different levels in how they can administer punishments to offenders.
In modern politics and history, a parliament is a legislative, elected body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: representing the electorate, MAKING LAWS, and overseeing the government (i.e., hearings, inquiries). The laws attributed in this definition are the system of rules that a particular country or community recognizes as regulating the actions of its members and may enforce by the imposition of penalties, often by courts of law, with the authority to adjudicate (make a formal judgment or decision about a problem or disputed matter) legal disputes between parties and carry out the administration of justice in civil, criminal, and administrative matters in accordance with the rule of law. So while the local law enforcement authorities are doing their best to come to terms and deal with this phenomenon, they at the same time are guided and in most cases limited by what the supreme law of the land says. In The Nation of 6 June 2016 an article on page 7 titled ‘Law faculty blames albino killings on law’ regarding issues to do with the Anatomy Act an excerpt of which reads, “an offence of selling or buying a tissue removed from a body of a deceased or living person is liable to a fine of K15000.00 or to serve a maximum sentence of 10 years”. This is another piece of legislation that needs to be revisited, again this can only be done by you and your colleagues honorable member IN PARLIAMENT and not through the press. Bring a relevant motion to parliament that will pave way for the amendment of weak and irrelevant laws such as these if the people with albinism are to feel any safer and know peace. Stop wasting time by making ‘temporary’ noise in the press, I say noise because it does not do anything to bring about the necessary protections to the victims of these senseless attacks, and deterrents to the would-be perpetrators.
Let him walk naked, who cares…………I guess lots of women will line up the streets to see if he is circumcised or not.
Useless attention grabber…………..he did not get anywhere with the land issue in Thyolo now he want to seek attention thru the Albino killing issue.
How can we have one punishment for albino killers and another for non albino killers? If you want to bring back the death penalty make sure it applies to all murderers not only those who murdered an albino, that will be a judicial mess.
It would be quite hilarious to see our MP walk in the buff! Let’s all encourage him to do just that. We have nothing to lose, really.