2 Bodies Found Buried in Their Home, LL Police Arrest Man in Connection to Richard Master Murder

Two men were found dead and their bodies buried inside one of the three bedroom house they lived in, at Kaphiri, in Chiweza village in the Capital city, Lilongwe. Police have commenced investigations into this murder. 

One of the deceased was identified as a photographer Alex Makonyola aged 33 from Likhaka village of T/A Mwambo in Zomba while another person is only known as Patrick who is said to be the house boy of Alex.

According to Lilongwe Police Public Relations Officer, Sub Inspector Kingsley Dandaula, police suspects that the murder happened almost five to ten days before bodies were found on Tuesday 24th March 2015 saying they were in decomposed state.

Dandaula said on Monday, some members of community at Kaphiri informed Police on the matter after suspecting that Alex Makonyola was dead following a strong fetid smell from his house. But he said people in the area learnt of the development when a young boy who once stayed with Makonyola visited the house and informed neighbors that he found Makonyola’s house locked but an awful smell was coming out of it.

“When Police arrived and entered the house, could only locate the direction of the smell since the room was too dark to see anything inside” said the Sub Inspector Dandaula

“So we smashed part of the wall which was a brick sealed window, that’s when we saw the horrifying scene” he said, they saw what looked like a grave at the corner in that room and a shoulder protruding from the ground. 

He said upon dig up, they found body of Makonyola and another man which some members of the community have identified him as Patrick.

The Lilongwe Police PRO said Patrick was identified because of his necklace and not by face because the two bodies were already in decomposed state, of which he said failed medical doctors from Kamuzu Central Hospital to carry out the postmortem.

“We are investigating into this brutal murder to find the suspects and motive of doing such” said Dandaula who indicated that the two victims had severe injuries in the head leading to suspect that the murderers used heavy weapons.

The exhumed bodies have been buried by police at Chimwala cemetery behind Chimwala CCAP church.

Meanwhile Police in Lilongwe Area 36 Police Unit have arrested Tiyese James aged 22 from Kaondo village T/A Tsabango in Lilongwe in connection to March 13, 2014 murder of Richard Master aged 18 from Maloya village of T/A Chikowi in Zomba.

Lilongwe Police Public Relations Officer Sub Inspector Kingsley Dandaula says Richard Master was murdered in Area 36 and the suspect who is thought to be one of the members of Area 36 notorious group ’11 Bongo’s’ has been on the run since the crime was committed.

He will answer murder charges and other criminal activities he carried out together with 11 Bongo group.

Contractor Mis-Procurement for the Upgrade of Machinga, Chingale-Lilangwe Road Leading to More Sufferings: CCJP Urges Current Regime Not To Repeat Similar Decision

• Dr. Joyce Banda Govt misprocured contractor for the road

• Continued deaths enroute to hospital are among challenges

Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace (CCJP) of Zomba Diocese says government choice to mis-procure contractor to upgrade the Machinga, Chingale-Lirangwe road to tarmac has not solved any long and increasingly sufferings of people from districts of Machinga, Zomba and Blantyre, rather another journey of misery.

The construction works for the road was stalled immediately when Peoples Party (PP) led Administration launched the upgrade of the road in March 2014, as Kuwait Fund withheld its resources after observing that Malawi government had flouted procedure by hiring a European contractor ‘Mota-Engil to do the upgrade works, tangent of the Loan agreement that ‘the contractor should be sourced from Arab country.’ 

The withheld money was a bill passed by the National Assembly in 2013 ‘Kuwait Fund Loan Authorisation’ valued at $10.2 million for the upgrading and rehabilitation of approximately 62.3km Machinga, Chingale-Lirangwe road to a tarmac by 2014 and then Deputy Minister of Finance hon Cornelius Mwalwanda signed the Loan agreement on 19 November, 2013.

Director for Zomba CCJP office Raphael Yusufu, says the stall, is continuously leading to frequent death among patients on their way to referral hospitals of; Zomba Central Hospital, Mlambe Hospital and Queen Elizabeth Central Hospital in Blantyre. 

Yusufu, further said Public as well as private servants are shunning away from working in the area; lack of viable markets even though the area is the food basket for Zomba, Machinga and Lunzu towns; and people are experiencing untimely delivery of materials such as school materials, agricultural commodities and FISP inputs when it rains because the road becomes impassable. 

While expressing disapproval of the decision made by then government and caution current government to refrain from committing such unjust procedure any time in future he said “Times for politicking is over and let us develop our nation by making sure that we respect all the due process required as stipulated in contracts signed with the cooperating partners.” 

“We have seen leaving of Mota-Engil from their designated camping site in Chipini without any explanation to the community. In addition, the road was to commence as soon as it was launched in March, 2014, however nothing has materialized on the ground.” observed Yusufu

Others who spoke to this reporter from Chingale Constituency, explained that in 2014, they had to cough in extra money to hire for a vehicle to carry their FISP inputs after the truck which was meant to deliver the same got stuck in Lirangwe and Pregnant women are still delivering along the way and patients dying on their way to referral hospitals. 

But in a recent interview, Minister of Transport and Public Works hon. Francis Kasaila acknowledged the problem but was quick to mention that current administration is in talks with Kuwait and that it has already removed Mota-Engil on the road site so that new procurement of Arab world contractor begins as per agreement of the loan. 

He said officials from Arab bank of Kuwait would be in Malawi by the end of March to finalize deal negotiations and within 90 days the Ministry would have all due processes finalized and by July latest the contractor could be on the ground.

“We are meeting with Kuwait Fund on how we move forward because they need to give us a go ahead, a no objection to procure another contractor. That process will definitely start as soon as we meet and agree on the way forward."

Kasaila equally expressed grief over the decision made by then government "It was a costly decision we have lost time, we had our relationship to save between us and the donors, because when you do mis-procurement you are putting yourself in bad light with donors as a country" 

The Minister, then said "Our colleagues in Lirangwe, Chingale and Machinga they have been expecting this construction works to start long time ago but nothing is on the ground”

“We should endeavor not to do that because it becomes sad, if that happens it is the country that loses resources, we have lost time as well. Therefore it is something that as government we have learned and we hope we will not repeat in the future." He assured

However, Zomba CCJP Director further reminds Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) government to live up to its promise of upgrading the road “Machinga-Chingale-Lirangwe is one of the priority roads promised in the DPP Manifesto and is high time they rise to the occasion by fulfilling their promises through ensuring that the socioeconomic rights of people living along this road is respected by giving them a tarmac road.”

Concerned people from areas along the road have gone to the extent of warning that if their road is not upgraded into tarmac by this regime, then they will campaign against voting for DPP and its candidates come 2019 elections.

Working with Communities in Tree Planting Helping Has Helped LL Council In Protecting Newly Planted Trees

Efforts in protecting the newly planted trees seem working with Lilongwe City Council east it boasts that working with communities no cases of uprooting of trees are being recorded this year.

The Lilongwe City Council says involving communities in Tree Planting this season has been the best alternative of protecting newly planted trees in the city.

The Council during this year’s tree planting season has been involving communities led by Chiefs in planting of trees in their communities.

Assistant Director in the Department of Parks, Repletion and Environment responsible for Forestry Activities in Lilongwe City Council, Mr. Lackson Chingana says the Council used communities is the wake of past experience where communities have been uprooting newly planted trees for fear that they will lose land for farming. 

He said current communities involvement in tree planting has develop the sense of ownership of the trees.

“As Lilongwe City Council, one of our mandates is to make sure that we are protecting environment within Lilongwe city, so as a department which is responsible for environmental rehabilitation, one of the programmes that we have put in place is to rehabilitate the environment by planting trees.”

“What we are doing right now is that we are trying to involve the community as one way of protecting trees. Though we have patrol team that goes around to make sure that people are not cutting down trees, but in the past we have observed that still when the trees are still small there are always uprooted.”

“So, we thought this time around we should involve the community, because if we involve the community in the tree planting programme we are instilling the spirit of ownership” adding that, “if somebody plants the tree will make sure that that tree is protected.”

He further said “Whereas we are involving them in tree planting we are as well sending the message to them to make sure that we protect the environment because if we don’t protect environment it is the very same community which is going to suffer.” 

Malawi Inflation Ease by 1.5% In February

The National Statistical Office (NSO) says February 2015 Malawi Consumer Price Indices (CPI) Dashboard is pegged at 19.7%.

The headline inflation for February 2015 stands at 19.7 percent compared to the headline inflation of 24.6 percent for the same period last year (February 2014). 

This figure show that, there is a decrease of 1.5 percent from last month (January 2015).

January Overall Inflation was at 21.20 while in the month of February was at 19.70

The urban and rural rates stand at 22.5 percent and 19.0 percent respectively.

Overall, food inflation stands at 19.0 percent from 21.5 percent in January 2015. 

"Although food prices have gone up the rate of increase is much lower than the corresponding rate in the same period last year, reads NSO statement "The decrease in non-food inflation is still emanating from mainly the effects of decline in fuel prices."

January Statistics Visavis February 

According to Reserve Bank of Malawi statistics:

January Overral Consumer Price Indices (CPI) was at 185.60 while in February is at 193.50

In the month of January, Food CPI was at 184.70 while February is at 195.00

January's Food Inflation was at 21.50 while February is at 19.00

This year's January Non-Food CPI was at 186.10 while in February is at 196.60

As of January 2015, Non-Food Inflation was at 20.80 while in February is at 20.40

CFTC Continues With Investigations into ‘Aqua Pure' Defective Water; Bowler Beverage Complying with Investigations

CFTC Continues With Investigations into ‘Aqua Pure' Defective Water; Bowler Beverage Complying with Investigations 

The Competition and Fair Trading Commission (CFTC) says Bowler Beverage Company alleged in selling of defective product a bottled water ‘Aqua Pure Water’ is complying to its on going investigations as the company has acknowledged of distributing of defective product.

Following increased consumer complaints, CFTC and the Ministry of Industry and Trade requested the Malawi Bureau of Standards (MBS) to conduct laboratory tests for Aqua Pure bottled water to determine its conformity with prescribed consumer safety standards, in particular MS 699- Mandatory Malawi Standard on Bottled Water other than Mineral Water Specification 

The request was in pursuit of the Commission's mandate of regulating, monitoring, controlling and preventing acts or behaviour which are likely to adversely affect competition and consumer welfare in Malawi as provided under the Competition and Fair Trading Act, 

Executive Director for the commission Charlotte Wezi Malonda said the commission is currently on preliminary stage of its investigations, which if it finds wrong doing by Bowler Beverage then the Commission together with other stakeholders would be involved in “trying to find ways of helping the company” 

The findings of laboratory tests showed that “Aqua Pure bottled water failed to comply with minimum standard requirements on total plate count and coliform bacteria.” Which essentially means that the Aqua Pure bottled water which Bowler Beverages Company Ltd was supplying into the market was certified unfit for human consumption by the bureau until it satisfies whatever requirements stipulated by MBS.

“As a Commission we are going to fully investigate the matter so that we see the extent of the defective product which was distributed on the market we received the complaint that there were some government departments that procured this product and they realized that after some time the product was having some residues in bottles, even though it had not been opened”

She said “Samples of the product were sent for testing to the bureau of standards and we requested the results which proved that indeed the product was not fit for consumption. We also understand that further action has been taken by the Malawi Bureau of Standards in relation to the production but our main concern is the distribution of the product which we feel is the breach of the law because according to the Act, an enterprise is not supposed to sell to a consumer the product which is not fit for human consumption.” 

Then CFTC ED said is pleased that Bowler Beverage has already acknowledged of distributing defective product “We have been provided with new information that, actually it is specific product manufactured within a specific period of time, so we are happy with the acknowledgement that has been made by the company, that some of their products did not pass the fitment test”

The commission’s action of recalling the product from the market Malonda said “We did not ban the product but we want the company to take the responsibility of the defective product and remove it from the market.”

She however said the commission is yet to find out if the company has completely removed its defected product on the market.

CFTC on March 11 2015, issued statement informing general public that it has instituted formal investigations against Bowler Beverages Company Ltd for alleged supply of products which are likely to cause injury to health or physical harm to consumers, when properly used or which do not comply with prescribed consumer safety standards contrary to Section 43(1)(e) of the Competition and Fair Trading Act. 

In light of the prima facie evidence on the standard of this product, and in the interest of protecting the public, the CFTC further advised Bowler Beverages Company Ltd, to immediately recall the product from the market given the substantial evidence provided by the MBS certifying that the product is unfit for human consumption.

Malawi Police Arrest a man Who Abandoned 29 Bags of Marijuana, Toyota Carina

Police in Nkhotakota finally arrests a man who has been on the run leaving behind a Carina vehicle which contained 29 bags of Cannabis Sativa

Police Public Relations Officer for Nkhotakota Police Station Williams Kaponda says the man identified as Matambo Gizito Chikwa has since been remanded to Nkhotakota Prison by Nkhotakota Magistrate Court on Thursday.

The officer says Chikwa was arrested in Blantyre on 17th March and is expected to reappear before court on Tuesday March 24, on charges of illegal found in possession of cannabis sativa.

Early this week police in the district reported that in the night of March 11, 2015 the alleged man abandoned a motor vehicle, Toyata Carina registration number NU 5592 at a snap roadblock near Mpondagaga trading centre in the district.

Police said a Toyota carina which was fast approaching at the police check-point stopped all over sudden and the driver ran away leaving the car behind.

A thoroughly check in the abandoned motor-vehicle, police discovered 29 bags of Indian-hemp and a drivers license baring the suspects particulars.

The Nkhotakota Police PRO says suspect Matambo Gizito Chikwa aged 32 who hails from Chikanje village, in Senior Chief Kanyenda area, of Nkhotaota district is exercising the right to remain silent in court.

Malawi Police Strategize to End Albino Attacks, Killings

• Strategies include; physical identification of households with people living with albinism as well as schools they go to

• Police condemns the albino killings

Kachama greeting President Mutharika

The Malawi Police Service has warned that it will not sit back and watch the misdemeanor of attacks, abductions and killings of people born albino as it says police are alert and ready to apprehend any person perpetrating such violence.

In an interview after President Peter Mutharika had addressed the nation on albino attacks on Thursday Inspector General of Police (IG) Lexten Kachama, said Commissioners from all regions of the country had a meeting where they devised strategies to completely end this crime and not reduce it.

“We the police are strongly condemning and warning all perpetrators of the unbecoming criminal behavior of killing, abducting and even selling people with albinism in the country and therefore wishes to strongly warn any would be perpetrators of such and barbaric acts that the police will not sit back and watch while this unbecoming and worrisome trend takes root in the country.”

Kachama then assured that the situation is currently being well managed as several strategies have been put in place by Police

He mentioned; physical identification of households with people living with albinism as well as schools where people with albinism goes to and engaging with traditional, religious and community leaders in support of efforts of protecting rights of people with albinism.

The Malawi Police IG further said police are enhancing Community Policing structures as well as mainstreaming issues of people living with albinism including enhancing intelligence collection to identify source, nature of markets and final destination of the alleged trade.

“We will provide maximum security in the country to all” he assured, “However we would like to urge parents, relations and guardians of people living with albinism to exercise extra security precautionary measures in protecting people with albinism at all times.”

“The community at large should also take a leading role by reporting suspects, suspected strangers whether trying propose marriage or pretending to be on business in their areas” he appealed and emphasized that “Police alone cannot succeed to combat this malpractice but with public support we can really succeed. Please everyone should take this noble cause assisting police as we are trying hard to end and not reduce these criminal acts”

Kachama, has thanked all stakeholders especially ministry of gender, the judiciary, traditional leaders and faith leaders for their efforts in this fight. He as well, expressed thanks general public for support given to police on tips that have assisted to arrest some of the suspects.

The IG has dispelled any myth that surrounds albino attacks and killings, “Regrettably, incidences of attacks against people living with albinism are allegedly fueled by beliefs that body parts of people with albinism bring good luck and fortune which is very unfortunate situation. What is important in this matter is to note that these people with albinism are just ordinary people like anyone else and that their body parts do not posses any supernatural powers.” 

Minister of Home Affairs and Internal Security Hon. Paul Chibingu also echoed the IG’s appeal that the general public should play major role in providing information to police in order to end this malpractice.

Asked if Malawi is working closely with neighboring countries like Tanzania where albino attacks and killings were first reported before Malawi, the Minister said “At ministry level we haven’t yet contacted our friends how they have combated the problem but am sure in due course we will consult our friends to see if at all they have completely managed that problem and how they did it”

The most recent incidences of albino attacks happened in Zomba where a 2 year old baby with albinism was snatched from a fellow 10 year old sibling, but fortunately the baby was rescued by neighbors as the suspect tried to run away. Police have also arrested a suspect in Mangochi in connection with selling of his nephew with albinism who according to Inspector General of Police the suspect is assisting police as so far, eight suspects have been arrested connected to the issue of albinism.

Furthermore, another suspect named Saidi Mpunga aged 32 is in police custody in neighboring Mozambique answering murder charge of albino and is expected to be brought back to Malawi to answer another charge of killing an albino girlfriend in Mulanje.