People are still commenting, a lot
has been said, conclusions being made, the media has brought to light the ills,
others are treating the issue while wearing their political lenses, but mine
will be an honest opinion based on how I feel about these killings of people
with albinism.
According to the recent released
report by the Human Rights defending body, Amnesty international, these
killings have been recorded in 23 countries in Africa, with Malawi and Tanzania
recording the highest number.
Yesterday I argued with a friend who
was saying that these killings are as a result of weakness in the country’s
leadership and my answer was simple; this is how I presented my arguments,
starting with some examples;
In South Africa, crime is a
prominent issue. The country has a very high rate of murders, assaults, rapes
(adult, child, elderly and infant), carjacking and other crimes compared to
most countries. But wait a minute; South Africa has had prominent leaders in
Nelson Mandela, Thabo Mbeki now Jacob Zuma. Is the high crime late as a result
of weak leadership for the past years?
To me the issue is all about the
sickness of the society in South Africa. The high crime rate is being
contributed by social factors from poverty, high unemployment rate, emigration,
illiteracy, over population, post apartheid effects etc.
Yes, some of the issues can be
sorted by government but others are beyond government because the rot is just
deep rooted in the South Africa’s society.
Imagine this is happening yet SA
Police has over One thousand police stations across the country. Their police
is also one of the most organized in Africa, with enough resources but crime is
almost everywhere.
Crime rates can be reduced but
cannot be ended everywhere in the world crime is committed almost every day, even
in America but that doesn’t translate to weak leadership.
In Malawi we have had cases of
defilement and rape where women and children are the most victims. Cases of
armed robbery are recorded almost every day. And this has been happening even
from the time of Bakili, Bingu, JB and now APM. Only that in the past we had no
social media and the traditional media was still in its infancy.
Now in this era of Smart-phones, we
no longer rely on the traditional media for breaking news. Within seconds the
story is all over facebook, twitter and whatsapp. We were hearing albinos don’t
die, they just go missing. We used to believe in such stories up until when the
media started reporting that no, our friends are being killed by some monsters
kind of people.
To add on to that, courts have been
melting stiff punishments to the rape suspects, armed robbers are being killed
through mob justice and sometimes killed by the police. Have these punishments
stopped wanna-be-offenders from committing the very same offences?
I thought the killings and the stiff
court punishments would scare away other criminals? NO! We can arrest the
rapists, the robbers or even kill them etc, but almost every day, someone
somewhere will be committing a crime.
As you can see, this is not as a result
of weak leadership.
Now the case of Albinos, the
president doesn’t live with the albinos in the villages, we do. We know where
they live, we see them every day. What measures have we taken to protect them?
What are the traditional leaders doing?
I remember we still have community
policing in our communities, what are they doing to protect our friends? Have
we done enough in our communities to protect our friends or we don’t care
anymore?
How can we know that so and so is
planning to abduct and kill an Albino? Can government afford to give the
albinos police protection 24 hours? Should we say the albinos must drop out of
school so that they stay home and remain safe? Or they should also stop going
to church? Remain indoors? But some of the abductions have happened while the
albinos are safely sleeping in their homes? Must the lives of the albinos come
to a halt for them to remain safe?
Government has condemned the albino
killings lead by our president which is commendable. The police have arrested
some of the killers and the courts have successfully sentenced them.
So what’s the problem now? What must
we do as a nation? Because the people that are killing the albinos could be
MCP, PP, UDF, DPP or they could be CCAP, Catholic, SDA or Pentecostals. They
could be Tumbukas, Lomwes, Yaos, Tongas etc. These are the people we live with.
These killings could also be as a
result of poverty, superstitious beliefs, high illiteracy levels etc. We have
NGOs oeperating in different communities, what are they doing? Instead of
initiating the “stop open defecation” projects, why can’t they take lead in
senstising communities against these acts?
What about church leaders? School
authorities in the communities, traditional leaders and other village
structures.
Why can’t companies compliment
government’s efforts in supporting the police with resources?
This issue affects all of us and the
solution must come from all of us. We must stop this finger pointing game. It
will take us nowhere. It did not take a year to stop the killings in Tanzania,
it took them years
