Malawi’s cry for just, opportunity to strengthen justice systems—Chakwera
President Dr. Lazarus McCarthy Chakwera has described Malawians’ cry for justice as an opportunity for Malawi to strengthen justice system’s institutions to meet expectations of the people.
Chakwera made the sentiments at the Kamuzu Palace in Lilongwe on Thursday during the swearing in of the newly appointed judges of the High Court of Malawi.
The Malawi leader stated that Malawians are currently living in “volatile times in which the cry for justice from the human heart rings loud”.
“This cry for justice represents both a danger we must guard against and an opportunity we must take advantage of. The danger with today’s thirst for justice is the temptation to quench that thirst through acts of mob justice,” he said.
President Chakwera cited the assault of two elderly women by a mob in Mzimba after being falsely accused of causing someone’s death by witch craft.
Evidently, stressed the President, the death was a source of grief for the community and in their thirst for justice, they wrongly took the law into their own hands and injured two vulnerable and defenceless women in the process.
“And now as many as twenty members of that community have been arrested for the assault. Mob justice is a crime, and anyone who takes the law into their own hands will find themselves in the hands of the law.
“But the cry for justice is also an opportunity. It is an opportunity for us to satisfy that cry by strengthening the justice system’s institutions to the point that the public can trust that if anyone violates the rights of another, justice will be done swiftly, fairly, and transparently,” said Chakwera.
“And you who have taken the oath of service to serve as High Court Judges today must remember that this opportunity is in your hands. It is in your hands to give citizens who cry for justice the confidence that their search for equity is not in vain.
“It is in your hands to give citizens who cry for justice the confidence that to stand in your court is to stand in the presence of God himself, where righteousness and justice are executed swiftly, fairly, and transparently.
“And so as you go to serve the people, I pray that God himself will be your light and your guide, for when you render judgment, you render it on his behalf,” he concluded.
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