The Mponela Magistrate Court has reserved its ruling on a Mponela resident Sainani Nkhoma who was arrested last Week for the offence of insulting the country’s President Dr. Lazarus Chakwera to next Week.
Nkhoma, 36, was arrested following comments he made on a Mponela Hotspot WhatsApp forum for a TikTok picture which is circulating on various social media platforms showing President Chakwera seeming to be dancing.
Resident Magistrate Talakwanji Mndala has found the man guilty of the offence and reserved his ruling for next week.
According to the prohibition of Offensive Communication Act, “Any person who willfully and repeatedly uses electronic communication to disturb peace, quietness or right to privacy, commits a misdemeanour and shall upon conviction be liable to a fine of one million Kwacha and imprisonment for twelve months.”
Mai Estery Mwale, owning one of the Restaurants at Mponela Trading Centre said Sainani Nkhoma was arrested by a group of MCP members some belonging to the Mponela Hotspot WhatsApp forum who invaded his house at around 7;30 pm Tuesday last week.
Mai Mwale said some members on the WhatsApp group alerted their colleagues who sooner, mobilized themselves to go to Sainani Nkhoma’s house to arrest him and brought him before Mponela Police Station officers who recorded a statement and locked him into custody.
She said Sainani Nkhoma is just a victim of circumstances claiming that President Chakwera is being insulted in minibuses, by the Kabaza operators, in buses, beer drinking joints and many other places but the snake has bitten the man.
The woman said out of all presidents who have governed Malawi, former President and DPP leader Professor Arthur Peter Mutharika has received millions of insults and castigations and is continuing to face the same every day till today but at no time, he has been arrested any describing him as a statesman.
