National News

Govt mum on Chasowa inquiry

Malawi President Bingu wa Mutharika is yet to set up a commission of inquiry into circumstances leading to the death of Polytechnic engineering student Robert Chasowa last September.

Mutharika in October promised to have Chasowa’s death probed, but government has remained mum on progress on the matter, with officials tossing the issue among themselves.

The President promised he would, within 48 hours, set up an inquest into Chasowa’s death and arson attacks on civil rights activists when he spoke on BBC’s Africa Have Your Say programme on October 6 2011.

Chasowa—who was chairperson of a student activist group, Youth for Democracy, which was allegedly printing a weekly anti-Mutharika administration newsletter, the Weekly Political Update—was found dead on campus on September 24 under mysterious circumstances.

Investigations into his death and arson attacks on government critics have also been a key demand for donors to unlock their frozen aid.

Presidential spokesperson Hetherwick Ntaba on Tuesday refused to comment on Mutharika’s promise and tossed the matter to the Office of President and Cabinet (OPC), saying he was in the dark.

Government spokesperson Patricia Kaliati, apparently alluding to the ongoing inquiry into the July 20-21 shootings and deaths, said: “There is a commission of inquiry and I cannot comment before they have reported to us.”

OPC officials were not immediately available for comment on the formation of the Chasowa commission of inquiry.

Apostle Timothy Khoviwa, who is currently leading the 20/7 inquiry, said their scope does not extend to Chasowa’s death.

Chasowa was found dead with a deep cut on his head and lying in a pool of blood and police immediately pronounced his death as suicide. They claimed he jumped from a three-storey building because he was identified as the author and distributor of the anti-government newsletters.

However, a pathologist’s post-mortem showed the death was inconsistent with a free fall suicide.

Police spokesperson Davie Chingwalu on Tuesday said police are yet to conclude their investigations.

“What I know is that the investigations are ongoing and I cannot say at what stage we are with the investigations,” said Chingwalu.

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