BY WATIPASO MZUNGU JNR
The condition of one Fredrick Banda who was shot in the head on by warders at Maula Prison on 2 December this year is said to be worsening.
Banda fell victim to the gun-shot after inmates and officials exchanged fire and stones having failed to agree on one thing regarding food rations.
Inmates purportedly staged a strike demanding to receive food rations on that day contrary to what the prison officials had told the slaves the previous day that there was no food in store for them.
Both hospital officials at Kamuzu Central Hospital (KCH) and Malawi Human Rights Commission investigators have confirmed. However, Prisons’ Department spokesperson Tobias Noah told the reporter in a phone interview that the victim had been discharged and was now receiving treatment as an outpatient.
This development has angered Dorothy Nyasulu of Malawi Human Rights Commission who wondered why officials at Maula chose to cheat their own senior authority.
“What is their motive? Why do they feed their own superiors with false information? This is very ridiculous!” she said.
Our source, who has just been released from the institution having served ten-year sentence, said prisoners decided to stage a sit-in when they saw that management at the penitentiary did not value and respect inmates’ right to food.
The source said the management started denying them of their adequate nutritious meals from 26 November to 1 December 2007. This angered the slaves who demanded an explanation from the Officer in Charge a Mr. Makumba. But Makumba was sick on that fateful day.
Inmates could not relent, so they demanded the head of the Regional Prisons Officer L.D. Mtengano. When the RPO availed himself, he earned himself stone-throws having dissatisfied the inmates with his explanation.
The irate slaves beat up Sub-Inspector Phiri of Lingadzi Police who had gone there to release a prisoner on remand. In the process, Phiri lost a shoe from one foot, wrist watch and money.
When they had finished with the law enforcer form Kawale, they pounced on Mtengano. But Mtengano had a pistol loaded on him so he had no reason to be afraid. He pulled a trigger and started firing towards the direction where inmates had assembled. This is when Fredrick Banda paid his price.
The source continued to say that inmates could not understand why they were being starved when Parliament had just passed their budget and that there was enough maize in ADMARC markets according reports from the government.
At least 70 inmates who were thought to be ringleaders have been transferred to Mikuyu Prison.
A certain woman whose son is in the group of those transferred to Mikuyu expressed fear for his enslaved child saying: “I am afraid he will die there. I have heard a lot about Mikuyu during Kamuzu and I don’t know if he will ever come.”
The mother also said what pains her most is that her child was about to be released soon (he had two months remaining).
An official at KCH confided in the reporter that Banda has now been moved from Intensive Care Unit (ICU) to High Dependency Unit.
MHRC has said they are following up the matter with keen interest and would take an appropriate action against the officer who shot should something worse happen to the victim.
“We are mostly disappointed because very recently we conducted a workshop for Prison warders in Mangochi where we told them to respect the rights of the inmates. We also asked not to resort to shooting whenever there a slight disagreement with their wards,” Nyasulu recounted.
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