Newly-appointed judges deployed

The Judiciary in Malawi has ignored calls to allocate two or more new judges to Mzuzu Court House and has since assigned one judge to Blantyre, Lilongwe and Mzuzu registries.

Only Zomba registry has not benefitted from the postings.

Judiciary spokesperson Mlenga Mvula last week confirmed the development.

In October this year, President Peter Mutharika appointed four new judges Joseph Chigona, Ruth Chinangwa, Dorothy De Gabrielle and the late George Bakuwa amid outcries for more judges who can serve the country’s 17 million population.

Bakuwa died suddenly during a tour of duty in Lusaka, Zambia last month, barely a month after his appointment.

Meanwhile, De Gabrielle has been posted to Mzuzu which will bring the number of judges at the Mzuzu Court House to two. Chinangwa has been deployed to Lilongwe while Chigona will be based in Blantyre.

Asked why Mzuzu has been allocated one judge when Malawi Law Society and other court users demanded at least two, Mvula said the number of new judges was too small to allocate two to Mzuzu.

He said Judiciary planned to allocate one new judge to each of the registries, but Zomba did not benefit following Bakuwa’s death.

“It may seem like we have more judges in Blantyre, but Blantyre is a principal registry. Being a principal registry. It handles more cases and, therefore, needed to have more judges. If there were more judges appointed maybe we could have considered allocating two or more to Mzuzu,” he said.

Malawi Law Society Mzuzu Chapter president Victor Gondwe said they expected at least two judges to be deployed to the Northern Region registry.  n