By Cathy Maulidi:
Member of Parliament (MP) for Mulanje West Yusuf Nthenda is set to table a private members’ motion asking the House to amend relevant laws for the abolishment of the death penalty.
Despite that no president has since the re-advent of multiparty system of government ever sanctioned that a prisoner on the death row be executed, the provision is still there in Malawi’s statutes.
Courts have also on several occasions sentenced individuals to death, mostly on charges of aggravated murder.
Nthenda confirmed to The Daily Times about the motion, saying it has already been included on Parliament’s upcoming business programme.
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The lawmaker said in an interview that Malawi should follow in the footsteps of some of its neighbours which have abolished the penalty.
He also argued that there are other penalties that can be meted out on perpetrators of serious crimes in the country.
“I don’t see why we should be maintaining a law that was imposed on us by our colonial masters when, back in Britain, they repealed such archaic laws,” the MP said.
He added that the fact that no president in democratic Malawi has ever signed a death warrant means the law is technically out of work.
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Human rights lawyer Alexious Kamangila has welcomed Nthenda’s proposal.
“Malawi did a national consultation on the death penalty, led by the Legal Affairs Committee of Parliament, which found that people support the abolition of the penalty.
“The Ministry of Justice [also] led a national consultative meeting where the majority of stakeholders also supported the abolition of the death penalty,” Kamangila said.
Last month, Minister of Justice Titus Mvalo said government was determined to work towards abolishing the penalty in sync with the preference of the majority.
Zambia is among African countries that abolished the penalty. It joined a group of 44 others which have either fully abolished the death penalty (26), or allow it only in very exceptional circumstances (16).
