Lawyer Alexious Kamangila has said he is raising funds for the construction of a house for a 30-year-old woman who was arrested for leaving a two-week-old baby at her ex-husband’s workplace.
In mid-August this year, Matilda Chirwa who hails from Khombe village in the area of Traditional Authority Zulu in Mchinji, was arrested together with her baby and spent four days in custody after being accused of deserting her two-week-old baby girl at her ex-husband’s workplace.
Chirwa claims the father of the child, Boniface Mseteka did not support her pregnancy and the baby upon birth and she went to the baby’s father workplace to demand for the child support and that leaving a baby with her dad cannot amount to deserting.
The court through Third Grade Magistrate Annie Simwaka discharged Chirwa after counsel Kamangila objected a request by the state to adjourn the case to a later date saying the first witness who is the father of the child was unwell and had gone to the hospital.
In a Facebook post, counsel Kamangila who is a law lecturer at the University of Malawi, announced that he is set to start a Citizen Initiative to build Matilda Chirwa a three-bedroomed house in her home village in Mchinji district.
The legal clinician who is also a Reprieve Fellow fighting for the Abolition of the Death Penalty in Malawi and Africa said his decision is because he wants Malawians to transform Chirwa’s life who got depressed after being arrested and detained for four nights at a time she cried for help.
Kamangila who expressed sadness that Chirwa’s baby slept on the floor and did not take a bath for four days In , indicated that he will very soon start raising funds locally and internationally which will be used to construct a three-bedroom house for Chirwa.
“I have therefore been moved by the transformation of Matilda. She can randomly smile and laugh, wow thus unbelievable considering where we are coming from. And so, because of this huge impact the caring/love has done, I want us to love/care more.
“I will therefore, be starting a Citizen Initiative to build Matilda a three bedroom house in her village, in her home, exactly where she stays. In two weeks time, I will start a drive for Citizens of Malawi and maybe Citizens of the World to contribute to Matilda,” said Kamangila in a Facebook post.
Counsel Kamangila further said he will soon be holding talks with entrepreneur Kondwani Kachamba Ngwira who he said will be contracted to do the project and to do a budget for a three-bedroom house for Chirwa.
“I am therefore calling on Kondwani Kachamba Ngwira to do a budget for a 3 bedroom house. Specifically three bedrooms, because I want 1 bedroom for Baby L, another for Matilda and lastly for her other 2 kids (11 and 9). Mr Ngwira, we want to contract you, and get us this house by December 2023. And this house will be paid for by Malawians, majority of which do not have a house of their own like me. But that’s the power of Love,” reads another part of Kamangila’s Facebook post.
Kamangila has since urged authorities to push for an amicable compensation for Chirwa which he said should be done without requiring a legal suit and he has also given the state one month to do the needful or show intention thereof.
He has also bemoaned a tendency of some men of shunning their responsibility of taking care of children saying: “As a nation, we can’t continue to protect men that are a reason for raising the population of street children in our streets.”
