The Malawi Human Rights Commission (MHRC) has said it is still optimistic that relevant agencies are investigating the murder of former Anti-Corruption Bureau corporate affairs director Issa Njauju.
In July last year, MHRC said it was concerned about the apparent delays and waning commitment among those involved in the investigations into what is seen as one of the country’s most high-profile murders.
The commission then indicated that the possibility of reporting the developments surrounding the investigations to regional and international human rights mechanisms within the African Union (AU) and the United Nations (UN) was there.
In an interview yesterday, MHRC executive secretary David Nungu said so far the commission has not undertaken any of the actions because it has been overtaken by the State which stressed that it is investigating the matter.
“We would have taken the matter to other levels had there been no commitment from the State, but as things stand today, we cannot go ahead and procure other services on the matter when the State is handling it,” Nungu said.
In June last year, the police said they were having difficulties in concluding their investigations apparently because the killers were very sophisticated.
They even announced that the tip-off stake on the murder had been raised from K1.5 million to K2 million, an apparent admission that there was little or no progress at all on the matter.
Asked whether the commission is satisfied with the progress on the matter—if at all there is any—Nungu said MHRC “is patiently waiting for what will come out”.
National police spokesperson James Kadadzera asked for more time to gather information on the progress on the investigations.
Two people, a local sand miner and a police officer, were arrested in connection with the murder which at one point was said to continue raising fears at the graft-busting body.
Njauju was killed two years ago and his body was found half-buried behind the presidential villas in Lilongwe while his official car was burnt to ashes at Mtsiriza—a peri-urban township west of Area 47.
