Malawi: Former Security Minister Gets Presidential Pardon

By Joseph Dumbula [caption id="attachment_105689" align="alignnone" width="962"] Uladi Mussa[/caption] Malawi President Lazarus Chakwera has pardoned 200 prisoners including former Home Affairs minister Uladi Mussa who was jailed for corruptly awarding citizenships and work permits to foreigners. Mussa earned a five-year jail term in 2020 for abuse of public office and negligence of official duties. Mussa was arrested by the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) in March 2017 on allegations that in 2013 while serving as minister of Home Affairs he and other officials from the Immigration Department fraudulently issued citizenships and passports to Burundians and Rwandese, among other foreign nationals. Recently in parliament, vocal lawmaker Kamlepo Kalua called for the pardon as Mussa was a high ranking official and that the matter was contentious. Meanwhile, Chakwera has also pardoned Jones Tewesa a driver to former commissioner of the Malawi Electoral Commission (MEC) Linda Kunje who was sentenced to 18 months imprisonment for obstructing the presidential convoy. He has also let free a teenager Mussa John who was initially sentenced to 8 years in prison for being found in possession of marijuana before the sentence was reduced to three years. Chapter 89 (2) of the Constitution gives the president power to pardon convicted offenders, grant stays of execution of sentence, reduce sentences, or remit sentences. It requires that this should be done in consultation with an Advisory Committee on the Granting of Pardon, the composition and formation of which is determined by an Act of Parliament. Last year, Chakwera pardoned 106 prisoners during the same period. Chakwera has so far pardoned over 1900 prisoners since he became president of the country in 2020.