Prof offers bounty on albino killers’ head
University of Malawi, College of Medicine Professor Adamson Muula has offered a K100 000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of killers of Yasin Phiri, a man with albinism.
Phiri was brutally murdered on New Year’s eve in his house at Kande Trading Centre in Nkhata Bay, a development that has shocked the country.
In a statement issued yesterday, Muula said he was disturbed to learn that Phiri was stabbed in his own bedroom in full view of his nine-year-old son.
He called on Malawians to work together in ensuring that no other person with albinism loses their life in that manner.
Said Muula: “I informed the Police Inspector General [IG] Rodney Jose that I am offering a monetary reward of K100 000 to any person or persons who shall provide the Malawi Police Service [MPS] with information leading to the arrest of the perpetrator/s of the gruesome murder of Phiri.”
Phiri’s gruesome murder comes barely nine months after the death of MacDonald Masambuka, a 22-year-old person with albinism who was abducted and murdered in March 2018. Masambuka’s body was found weeks after his disappearance.
On Tuesday, Association of People with Albinism in Malawi (Apam) president Overstone Kondowe bemoaned the continued killings, urging government to take decisive action that will put an end to the brutal murders of people with albinism.
And in a statement issued on Wednesday, Jose condemned Phiri’s murder and vowed that the police will hunt down and bring the perpetrators to book. n
