5-year-jail term for sodomy perpetrator anger Malawians: ‘Manifestly inadequate’

Malawians have expressed anger over the sentencing of a 21-year-old man to five years imprisonment for sodomizing four boys, saying this will not be a deterrent.

Sodomy is an alien sexual encounter in largely conservative Malawi.

Boys between 10 to 17 years were sodomized by the 21-year-old man in Dowa district from 2016 to 2020 and one of them contracted sexually transmitted infections.

The court learnt that Innocent Poita last committed the offence on November 25 at Muwende Village, T/A Chiwere where he used to invite the boys to his house during evenings to watch films and later sodomized them.

Poita pleaded guilty  but asked the court for leniency in mitigation on the basis that he looks after orphans and is a bread winner in his family.

First Grade Magistrate Amran Phiri then sentenced Poita to five years imprisonment.

But Malawians have expressed anger in social media platforms, saying the convict deserved a very stiff punishment.

The people have expressed their frustration arguing that such sentences are encouraging other people to commit similar offences knowing they will get away with it.

Other critics are calling for a review of the judgement insisting if lenient sentences are meted out to the offenders the public would resort to mob justice.

Some on the other hand believe the sentence is not stiffer because the victims are boys hence the need for the laws to be reviewed in order to accommodate male victims.

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