WATCH: Malawi police accused of torturing security guards exposes police oversight agency
In April, security guard Felix Kachingwe sent a WhatsApp voice note to a friend describing the beatings and torture he had suffered at the hands of police in Blantyre.
“They beat me with a machete while my hands and feet were tied,” he said in the audio note. “This assault changed my life.”
The audio note then went viral, leading to an investigation into his case by the Independent Complaints Commission, which investigates police.
That is exactly the reaction Kachingwe was hoping for when he sent out his note.
“This world is corrupt,” he said. “I want human rights organizations to know about this because I know I just can't get help.”
But if past complaints to the commission are any predictor, viral sympathy may be the only justice Kachingewe will receive.
Burglars broke into the Popat Wholesalers building where Kachingwe works in the early hours of February 17. Nothing was stolen, but he alerted his supervisor, who turned up at the scene with officers from the Criminal Investigation Division.
Police detained the security guards, including Kachingwe, for questioning.
“They tortured us,” he said. “I screamed, but they didn't stop. They mocked my private parts.”
Kachingwe said his injuries were left untreated for two days before other officers not involved in the assault took him to Queen Elizabeth Central Hospital.
He was returned to the same cell from the hospital and was eventually charged with theft along with one of his colleagues.
Kachingwe said her health passport – a booklet issued by the Ministry of Health and kept by patients as a portable medical record – was lost while she was at Blantyre Police Station.
It contained information about the assault, prescribed medications and follow-up medical appointments.
Some of the information from the hospital's electronic records system was then recorded in his old health passport, which showed that on 4 July, several months after his detention, Kachingwe underwent surgery for serious injuries to his genitals.
Officer Aubrey Kawale, officer in charge of Blantyre Police Station, denied that Kachingwe was assaulted while in police custody and said he only learned of the allegations after the audio note went viral.
“If the matter had been reported to us instead of on social media, we would have investigated and dealt with the officers involved,” he said.
While a civil court will hear the charges against Kachingwe, the police watchdog will investigate his own allegations against officers, which have a dismal record.
The commission, established by law in 2020, receives and investigates public complaints against the police. The commission has received 285 complaints to date, of which 186 are still under investigation. Only 50 investigations have been resolved, 10 have been dropped, and 39 are classified as “pending.”
The body complaint records highlight misconduct by the Malawi police force, including 37 complaints of physical assault by police and nine reports of wrongful deaths.
Custody.
One complaint documented the case of a 13-year-old boy who had both his hands amputated due to police negligence. Another case, similar to the one in Kachingwe, also involved the death of a security guard, allegedly due to police actions.
The watchdog's chairman, Christopher Tukula, said many of the cases remained unsolved due to complicity within the police.
“There is still a tendency among officers to shield one another and to conceal information,” he told a congressional committee earlier this month. “There is a tendency for officers not to report issues to regulators for fear of retaliation.”
The commission also struggles with limited resources and inadequate training for investigators.
The situation has left Kachingwe in an uncomfortable limbo: “It's heartbreaking and frustrating,” he said.
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