People with albinism confront President Mutharika for lying

Malawi President Peter Mutharika is peddling lies, the Association of People with Albinism in Malawi (APAM) has said.

The association confronted President Mutharika in a heartfelt note that has been shared on Facebook by APAM’s president, Overstone Kondowe.

In the note, APAM says it is a lie that President Peter Mutharika has directed a 24-hour police patrol and deployed the Malawi Defence Force soldiers to protect people with albinism who are facing genocide in Malawi.

“It is a lie that Mutharika has directed a 24-hour police patrol, it is a blue lie that Malawi Army soldiers have been deployed to protect people with albinism (PWA)” said Kondowe.

“I don’t know why Mutharika and his Ministers are peddling lies on a political platform about our security”, he queried.

In the note, Kondowe narrates how a 14 year old boy with albinism, Goodson Makanjira, was abducted by six assailants on Thursday in Dedza district before being brutally murdered.

Goodson was found dead, with body parts chopped off and his skin peeled off two days after his abduction

“I was in Dedza today with human rights commission but the case was very unique, 6 people terrorized the village, hurting 8 people and uncle to Goodson left unconscious. The assailants went away with Goodson” he says in the note.

“Pathetic to say that the community police was overwhelmed, men were hacked by machetes. Community police could not assist, the gangs had sophisticated equipment” he said.

Kondowe said the mother to Goodson has another child with albinism named Faith. The child who is 12 years old “has completely no protection”.

Kondowe is urging authorities to relocate the child to a more secure place failure of which he will be forced to use his personal money to have them relocated.

Chief Makanjira, an uncle to Goodson Makanjira, said earlier that the village was disturbed by “the brutal death” of child.

“We all now feel unsafe,” said Makanjira.

Since November 2014, the number of reported crimes against people with albinism in Malawi has risen to 152, including 25 murders and more than 10 people missing.

The UN has warned that the genocide of people with albinism in the country has left them at the risk of

extinction.