Rights Groups want Mutharika and Ntaba arrested over murder of people with albinism

The Association of Persons with Albinism in Malawi (APAM) and the Centre for Human Rights and Rehabilitation (CHRR) have challenged law enforcers to rise to the occasion and effect arrests on former President Professor Arthur Peter Mutharika and Dr. Hetherwick Ntaba who are suspected to have a hand in the murder of MacDonald Masambuka in 2018.

Masambuka – who was a 22-year-ld man with albinism from Machinga – was murdered gruesomely for his body tissues. The police arrested 12 people, who include a Catholic priest, a police officer and a health worker.

However, during the trial, some of the convicts named Mutharika and Ntaba as the ones who sent them to commit the crime.

Despite the stunning revelation, the police never acted until High Court judge Dorothy NyaKaunda Kamanga made her pronouncement last week.

When passing the judgment, NyaKaunda Kamanga equally wondered why Mutharika and Ntaba continued enjoying freedom despite being mentioned during the hearing of the case.

APAM executive member Ian Simbota and CHRR Executive Director Michael Kaiyatsa, in separate interviews, expressed worry that law enforcers continue to drag their feet on the two politicians.

Asked if arresting Mutharika would not be construed as political with-hunting, Kaiyatsa said, “Not at all because the court started hearing this case in 2018 when APM was President. So, there’s no case of political witch-hunting here.”

Meanwhile, Simbota and Kaiyatsa challenged both APM and Ntaba to personally take an effort to clear their names before the court.

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