Government Ready With Penal Code Amendment That Covers A lot On Albino Attacks

Samuel Tembenu

The Malawi Government says the reviewed penal code bill that broadly tackles the issues of ritual abductions and killings of persons with albinism will be brought to the National Assembly very soon before the ongoing meeting of the House comes to an end.

Minister of Justice and Constitution Affairs, Samuel Tembenu said in an interview that the review process of the penal code has come to an end and this bill will bring the real change in terms of the prosecution of the cases relating to the abductions and killings of persons with albinism unlike the Anatomy Amendment Act which has been passed solely for strengthen sentences.

Anatomy Act Amendment Passing Excites Kalindo; This Is Beginning For Death Penalty

Kalindo

The Mulanje South Legislator, Bon Kalindo has described passing of the Anatomy Amendment Act which is calling for life sentences to convicts guilty of possession of albino tissues and body parts as "battle well fought" and "victory" for him and all Malawians.

"This is a total victory not to me alone, but to all Malawians because this is what we have been waiting for, all along." Said Kalindo

He said the total support given to the bill by all members of Parliament is a clear indication that Malawians are tired and want to end the heinous crimes of abductions and killings of persons with albinism in the country.

Parliament Pass Anatomy Act Amendment: Impose Life Sentences, No Fines

Malawians took to the streets demanding death
Penalty 

Anatomy Act Amendment bill seeking Life Imprisonment has been passed by the National Assembly almost 5 hours after Mulanje South legislator, Bon Kalindo led hundreds to present petition to the National Assembly demanding activation of Death Penalty to convicts on offences related to albino killings.

There was cheers and clapping of hands in the House, showing excitement that finally Malawi will stop ritual killings of persons with albinism through life sentences.

Dowa East legislator, Richard Chimwendo Banda presented the Bill under Private Members Bill to amend Anatomy Act (Cap 34:03) so as to make the commission of offences therein punitive and deterrent.

Chimwendo Banda Ready To Prove Cabinet Ministers Got K5 Million OPC Loans

Hon. Chimwendo

Honorable Member for Dowa East Richard Chimwendo Banda is on Wednesday afternoon expected to bring evidence that cabinet ministers took K5 million loan from Office of President and Cabinet (OPC).

His disclosure came in the House when legislatures are demanding Government to approve their delaying General Purpose Fund (GPF) loans of K5 million each which they are supposed to repay between now and 2019. However, Government maintains that with economic challenges the country is going through, it will not be possible to approve the MPs loans.

Leader of House, George Chaponda caused hon. Chimwendo to spill the beans when Chaponda accused the opposition members being selfish for their insistence to discuss the future of their condition of service and not to deliberate on the budget.

Honorable Chimwendo Banda then told the House on Tuesday afternoon that he has evidence that all cabinet ministers got K5 million loan from OPC which includes K1 million for hotel accommodation, K1 million for furniture and another for duty free cars. He added that ministers also draw K45 thousand a day when attending Presidential function.

He therefore expressed concern that Chaponda remarks were unfair to the opposition members and had intent to create bad picture to the public that one side of the house is interested in petty issues rather than focus on national concerns.

Deputy Speaker of National Assembly, Esther Mcheka Chilenje invoked Standing Order 102 requiring the legislator to provide evidence after Minister of Labor, Youth and Man Power who is also Government Chief Whip, Henry Mussa, requested the Deputy Speaker to order the member to bring evidence.

However, several cabinet ministers stood to protest against Hon Chimwendo's alleged evidence and denied to have obtained such a loan from the OPC.

Other Cabinet Ministers including Home Affairs minister, Jappie Mhango and Health Minister, Peter Kumpalume threatened Chimwendo to provide “only evidence that proves that all” cabinet ministers took the alleged loan.

As the house was in uproar state legislator for Nkhatabay Central, Raphael Mhone rising on Point of Order brought in suggestion that OPC ought to bring the information of details of ministers who took loans since that is a public document and not to ask member for Dowa East to bring that matter in the House. This suggestion was seconded by the Kasunu East legislator, Elias Wakuda Kamanga but Deputy Speaker, Esther Chilenje never ruled on this since there was no order in the House which forced her to suspend the proceedings to allow members to sober up.

Since Monday, members from opposition side have been requesting the Minister of Finance to express himself on reasons why the legislators are not up to this day receiving their General Purpose Fund loan which includes K1 million for emergency and K3 million general purpose advance loan.

The legislators are mainly concerned that since their five year term is closer to an end obtaining such loan later and with 40 percent current rates banks are charging they will be heavily taxed.

On Tuesday, the House was suspended twice following disagreement over the same issue and Minister of Finance Goodall Gondwe has been discussing with the Welfare Committee on the matter.

ATI Absence, Little Stakeholder Input In Budget Processes Affecting Social Accountability In Malawi- ActionAid Survey Reveals

A baseline survey by ActionAid Malawi has identified absence of legislations particularly Access to Information and lack of enough engagement in the budget process as some of the limiting factors for social accountability, monitoring and oversight capacity in the management of public resources in the country.

The study captured information on current levels of social accountability capacity within central government, legislatures, civil society and the media. Six gaps were identified and it came up with 21 recommendations.

Access to Information legislation absence was highlighted as one of the limiting factor to access to public information vital for tracking budget expenditures. The legislation is expected to be tabled in the next meeting of the National Assembly probably in May or June and once enacted, the legislation is expected to help Malawians to access to public information which is difficult at the moment.

It also found that resource allocation processes are influenced more by the Ministry of Finance since consultations are mainly top-down with minimum negotiations. The study therefore noted that supply side players do not engage with the process from beginning hence they are not able to contribute fully to the budget debates and it added that donors play critical role in the resource allocation.

Other highlighted gaps are: persistent corruption practices and theft; challenges in performance management of the budget; political influences and gender insensitive budgets; lack of clear guidelines on the process of needs assessments and strategic planning process and legislative provisions on the role of CSO's and oversight players in the confirming the identified needs and strategic plan documents.

Among recommendations includes; strengthen the decentralization parameters to allow more participation and prioritization of needs, addressing public resource management laws, strengthen capacity to produce publicly accessible monthly and quarterly programme based financial statements and spending reports as well as strengthen stakeholder capacity to do expenditure tracking.

The study was done prior to implementation of the first phase of a five year project 'Strengthening Social Accountability and Oversight Capacity for Rights-based Public Resources Management in Health and Agriculture in Malawi.' 

The project aims at developing capacities of stakeholders in social accountability on public finance and the findings are expected to inform activities for the implementation of the project expected to rollout in May this year. 

Reactions to the Report

On Thursday, ActionAid shared the report to CSOs, Legislatures from selected Parliamentary Committees and Media and the findings have received encouraging response.

Richard Chimwendo

Member of Parliament for Dowa East and Chairperson for Parliamentary Committee on Social and Community Affairs, Richard Chimwendo Banda agree with almost all the issues articulated in the findings.

In an interview, Chimwendo said the issue of lack of full budget negotiations and engagements during formulation is one of relevant issues that truly represent current state of Parliamentarians on their oversight role and participation in the budget process.

"Yes, I would like to agree with the findings. There are gaps on how we provide our input to the Budget. The main challenge is that we are given the budget documents a week or so before the passing of the budget and it is therefore always a challenge to scrutinize the budgets." He said 

He added; "We feel Access to Information is very important for us because we will be able to demand to access to budget documents earlier as well to access to information that can enable us monitor the progress of the budget."

He then said he is impressed with the project aims and hoped that empowerment of legislatures on budget tracking will help them carry out budget oversight role properly.

Chidanti Malunga

Equally, Deputy Chairperson for Parliamentary Committee on Agriculture, Honorable Jospeh Chidanti Malunga shared similar sentiments of Chimwendo by adding that "Sometimes we do not know what is contained in Agricultural sector budget."

"Although we are put in cluster Committees to look at the budget documents, still we are not given ample time to look at budget documents. It is important that some times when budget is formulated we have to have time, way in advance so that we scrutinize it and also involve stakeholders in the know to help us critically look at issues in the budget"  he said

Malunga also said ActionAid initiative is a step in the right direction and he is ready together with his committee to work with ActionAid in the project.

Chikondi Chavuta

Chikondi Chavuta, Regional Thematic Manager for Food Security, Climate Resilience and Emergencies at ActionAid Malawi said the new project is aimed at strengthening social accountability and oversight capacity for rights based public resources management in health and agriculture.

She said the project which is part of regional programme that includes Mozambique, Zambia and Tanzania will help to improve the effectiveness of government system and structures to achieve accountability and transparency on budgeting utilization and implementation.

"We found out that structures that we operate at Government level are quite week and needs to be improved to ensure that they have proper service delivery." She said

Chavuta said the project intends to develop and enhance the capacity of stakeholders especially parliamentarians to oversee the two sectors. And also to develop capacity of issue based CSOs, media and Smallholder farmers to engage in social accountability monitoring and advocacy.

She further disclosed that the project also intends to develop capacity of relevant Government departments on public resources management, social accountability and oversight as well as reduce existing working relation gap between Government institutions and the stakeholders.

"This project will try to address that gap by building the capacities of all these areas to ensure that we reach the ultimate goal of ensuring social accountability and transparency and make sure that we have social accountability mechanisms in place that are benefiting especially people in poverty."

Chavuta also mentioned that CSOs, smallholders farmers, Media and Parliamentary Committees especially on Budget and Finance, Health and on Agriculture are expected to play a very critical role in the project on engagements and provide effective oversight that promotes social accountability in the health and agriculture sectors with a particular focus on HIV/AIDS, SRHR and food security.

ActionAid has been appointed to undertake a phase one of a 10-year project on behalf of the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation to: 'Strengthen Social Accountability and Oversight Capacity for Rights-based Public Resources Management in Health and Agriculture in Southern Africa'.

ATI Tabling Fail Again; Information Minister Rushed To Hospital

Mhango: Sick 

Minister of Information rushed to the hospital and fails to present the much awaited and promised Access to Information bill.

Leader of House Francis Kasaila informed the House this Friday morning when the House resumed sitting after health break to continue debate on prioritized bills that the Minister responsible to deliver the bill was sick and has been taken to hospital.

Minister who was expected to deliver the bill is Jappie Mhango Minister of Information.

Kasaila said there was nobody to present the bill on his behalf and therefore asked the House to continue with other bills and business of the House.

However, Kasaila did not disclose the seriousness of his sickness. But said this means the bill will come in the House in May Meeting

Kasaila on Wednesday and Thursday did promise that the bill will by all means be presented between Thursday and Friday.

uptdate

When asked in an interview of how seriously ill is Mhango, Kasaila replied “That’s the information that I have, that he is not feeling oky today.

The information that I have is that the minister was coming to the House but on his way he felt that he was not feeling Oky and he had to go to the hospital so we were hoping that may be he will be here after visiting the hospital but it did not happen that way.”

Asked why they failed to allow Justice Minister or to delegate other ministers to present the bill, Kasaila explained that the Government side got report of Jappies illness during the healthy break and therefore there was no other cabinet Minister who was ready to present and answer question pertaining to the bill. He added that it was also difficult to that time to request for the bill and delegate other cabinet members.

He hoped that the bill will be back in the House in May meeting of the National Assembly

Richard Chimwendo: There was commitment 

Through several assurances Government made to have the bill tabled in the House between Thursday and today, hopes were build in the hearts of many Malawians including Legislatures themselves that the bill will by all means be tabled.

Such hopes, prompted Dowa East legislature Richard Chimwendo Banda to stand as the House was about to adjourn Sine Die to ask Speaker to get clarification why the House is about to adjourn yet the much awaited bill is not coming.

"There was commitment that the bill will come in this House" he reminded the House and made emphasis that under situation at hand Government should have used collective responsibility by delegating a cabinet minister to present the bill.

Late Msiskas Child Arrest Cause Uproar In National Assembly

Commotion erupted on Monday evening in the National Assembly leading to early adjournment for Tuesday morning over reports of arrests of a child of former Member of Parliament for Rumphi North, late Tasoka Msiska.

The child is reportedly in police custody for allegedly fueling fracas that took place at dad’s burial in Rumphi last week. 

There, Minister of Information, Jappie Mhango was barred and chased away by an angry mob from attending the funeral ceremony. The rivalry follows Mhango’s win during the 2014 elections as independent candidate to oust late Msiska as parliamentarian for the constituency.

In the National Assembly, the pandemonium began immediately the house passed the Estate Duty Amendment Bill which has an element of giving good compensation to the bereaved family.

Richard Chimwendo Banda

Member of Parliament for Dowa East, Richard Chimwendo Banda rising on point of order sought clarification from the Minister of Information Jappie Mhango why he has used his authority to arrest child of late Msiska.

“We are saddened that one of the children of late Msiska has been arrested and Police are looking for the remaining children who are at large. Why are you doing this to these orphans? They have just lost their father and they need to be protected and respected as the country mourns with them.

So, in the very same spirit that government has demonstrated here in the bill we have just passed, that Children from bereaved family must benefit more from property of their parents, we are also demanding the release of the child of late Msiska” said Chimwendo who stood as Chairperson for parliamentary committee on Social and Community Affairs

He added that the arrest was political and that the Information Minister must have information relating to the arrest since him was chased at the funeral of the late father of the child.

However, the Speaker of the National Assembly, Richard Msowoya did not sustain Chaimwendo’s point of order by ruling him of out of order because the question was put to a wrong minister.

“Please use appropriate standing orders” said the speaker before ruling the member out of order. 

Msowoya said Chimwendo was out of order because Minister of Information is not a better person to clarify the matter because he is not the Minister of Home Affairs and does not make arrests.

After Speaker’s ruling, Rumphi East Parliamentarian, Kamlepo Kalua rose, insisting that the matter be discussed at length because it is of national importance. It took the speaker to put off the mic of Kalua to make him stop continuing with the matter.

Lilongwe Msodzi South parliamentarian, Vitus Dzoole Mwale also stood on the same and echoed Kalua’s point that the matter was of National Importance and need the house to discuss and hear from the Minister of Information on the matter.

The chaos prompted the Government Chief Whip, Henry Mussa to seek for an early adjournment to let the members have an ample time to read reports and bills to be discussed on Tuesday.

However, when the Speaker put the question as moved by the Government Whip, the opposition successfully blocked the proposal and continued with demands for the continuation of the matter.

Speaker then announced an early adjournment of the house for Tuesday morning after Government Chief Whip told the Speaker that there was no business to discuss at that time. 

When approached to get his views as he walked out of the parliament Chamber Jappie Mhango only said “I can’t comment anything. Go and talk to the one who brought the issue here”

In an interview, with Chimwendo said he was reliably informed by the uncle of late Msiska’s children that a child of late Msiska is in custody and that Police are hunting for other children.

He also said he is going to make a formal request to the Speaker on the same matter immediately the house resume sitting on Tuesday morning.

Late Msiska contested the 2014 tripartite elections as candidate for Malawi Congress Party after winning primary elections against Jappie Mhango. However, Mhango went on to contest for the General Elections as an independent candidate and won elections.

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