President Reverend Lazarus Chakwera’s executive assistant, Sean Kampondeni, has endorsed Minister Richard Chimwendo Banda’s calls for community members to torture suspects of rape and defilement before handing them over to Police.
Kampondeni who is also State House Director of Communications said this in his solidarity post on social media backing what Minister of Homeland Security Richard Chimwendo Banda said at a political campaign rally in Mangochi on November 29, 2020.
In his speech recorded at the rally, Chimwendo who is also leader of government business in Parliament is heard urging people that they should be beating suspects of rape and defilement before handing them to law enforcers as he believes this would deter would be offenders.
And in his Facebook post on Wednesday night, Kampondeni who is the Executive Assistant to the President commended the remarks made by the Minister responsible for the ministry which protects the lives of the Malawians.
Kampondeni argued that Chmwendo showed that he is angry over the rise in cases of rape and child sexual abuse in the country.
“In the debate about the propriety of Hon. Chimwendo Richard Banda’s remarks about what communities should do to rapists, it is worth commending the Minister for the propriety of the rage with which he made those remarks.
“There are too many men not angry enough about rape to lose their decorum, and that’s also a problem. As King David said, we must love righteousness so much as to become undignified in its defense,” reads the post.
Since the Minister made the remarks, there have been overwhelming reactions with some human rights organisations and individuals asking him to retract his comments and resign from the cabinet which he has refused.
Youth and Society (YAS) and Centre for Human Rights Rehabilitation (CHRR) on Tuesday asked the Homeland Security Minister to step down for his remarks which the two bodies say are encouraging mob justice in the country.
Renowned and seasoned Lawyer, Bright Theu, warned in a social media post that the country may end up losing innocent people if mob justice is chosen as a way of dealing with people suspected to have committed a crime without the courts deciding their fates.
“Imagine one of a minister’s son is mobbed to death one evening while out with his girlfriend who being of the alcohol mind or for some other reason picks a dispute with him and yells, he is trying to rape me! Or indeed as the minister’s son does his evening jogging and a mob chasing a suspected rapist mistakes him for the rapists, mobs him thoroughly and he passes on. None of this is going to happen or should happen I pray….” reads part of law guru’s post.
Meanwhile, President Lazarus Chakwera who also Malawi Congress Party (MCP) leader is yet to comment on the matter
