Malawi Police investigating a Chinese caught on camera abusing Malawian children

Following a conclusive investigative journalism piece by BBC Africa Eye journalist, Runako Celina — in conjunction with a Malawian scribe Henry Mhango — Malawi Police confirms that they have instituted their own legal investigations on revelations that a Chinese national was abusing rights of Malawian children by shooting derogatory videos which he sells for huge profit back in China.

The Chinese has been identified as Lu Ke and trends amongst the children he abuses as Susu (Chinese for uncle) and Runako accessed one video that went viral globally in which a group of children were taught to speak a Chinese phrase in which they unknowingly uttered what was translated as ‘blacks are devils and blacks have low IQ’.

When it went globally viral, Runako made her own investigations that showed such videos are being made in various African country in which their producers sell for huge profits.

The children are made to speak in Chinese and unknowingly attest that the Chinese are good people and in turn are rewarded with some food gifts.

Runako managed to trace that the ‘blacks are devils and blacks have low IQ’ video was shot in Malawi and in particular in Njerwa, Lilongwe and she solicited the help of the local journalist Henry Mhango to confirm that indeed Susu was based there.

Upon confirmation, Runako visited Malawi and with Mhango made a few clandestine investigations using a fellow Chinese equipped with a hidden camera in which Susu confirmed he did took the video but later retracted it whilst asking the informer to delete it.

In that clandestine investigation, the hidden camera caught Susu making racist remarks against Malawian blacks, saying they as Chinese should never feel sorry for their underprivileged lives.

Runako and Mhango interviewed parents of six-year-old Bright — one of the children used prominent for all such videos in which he gives a thumbs up with a charming smile — who shed tears when they were told by the two journalists what their son had been subjected to.

Bright also revealed that he was sometimes pinched or whipped when he missed out some of the Chinese phrases.

The boy’s father appealed to the authorities asking is the Chinese national should be evicted from their area.

Another parent attested that she tried to stop her child from visiting the Chinese but Susu kept coming and forced him back to his demeaning actions.

Runako and Mhango also engaged the kids, some of whom identified themselves in the demeaning videos.

When the two accosted the Chinese in the company of an interpreter, he vehemently denied shooting such videos, which according to Runako’s investigations, he made 380 videos a day earning himself around K77 — but was paying the children something below US$1.

According to police deputy national spokesperson, Harry Namwaza, the police have watched Runako’s feature on BBC Africa Eye and said they have launched their own investigations.

There have been made allegations made against the conduct of Chinese national’s in the country, who have time and again been accused of abusing their employees but had inconclusive investigations by the police and relevant authorities.

Unconfirmed reports indicate that when people report of such human rights abuses, the suspects use other Malawians as middlemen to hugely bribe the whistleblowers, who — because of poverty — receive the kickbacks and withdraw their allegations.

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