Dear My Learned Lord,
I choose to write as your very anonymous judge because everyone who tries to reason out his/her thoughts in this country is being attacked, maligned and demonized at once even by the very fellow judges we expect to be learned and reasonable.
Nobody is allowed to reason innocently because we rush to politicize every argument. As a result, we are bullying the people of reason into silence while the rowdy (loud and disorderly) voices hijack the national consciousness.
We have practically drowned the innocence of the judiciary in the manner captured by the Irish poet William Butler Yeats as my First Year memory serves me right:
“The ceremony of innocence is drowned; The best lack all conviction, while the worst Are full of passionate intensity.”
Indeed, we have made our best people in this country lack the conviction to stand up and speak truth while the worst “are full of passionate intensity” in being loudly noisy but on wrong things. This is very tragic.
His Lordship the very learned Dustan Mwaungulu has tried to provide the leadership in the public Court but we fast jumped on the rowdy bandwagon of demonizing him. Every time the Head of State has tried to criticize us, we have twisted the argument and said he is “attacking us”.
We are people who simply don’t accept anyone to reason against our reasoning or who simply refuse to be criticized. What kind of educated Malawians and learned judges are we?
Why are we learned people who do not want to be challenged or criticized? Why?
In short, one is allowed to say we have thrown reasoning to the dogs and this cannot be blamed on anyone but ourselves. Are we sure this is the judiciary that we want to be?
Your Lordship, we must admit you have failed to lead our judiciary. The degeneration of the judiciary is the very reflection of your leadership My Lord. As long as I am a judge, I will be honest. I repeat, Your Lordship has failed to lead the judiciary.
1. We are a judiciary where your own judges defy your lordship and refuse to write judgments. Many poor souls of Malawians out there are crying because we are denying them justice.
2. We have a castrated Integrity and Disciplinary Committee which is practically dysfunctional because you allowed it to led by a judge who refuses to write judgements and Your Lordship is way too weak to censure him.
3. We have been segregatively disciplining and punishing magistrates while we create a culture of making judges untouchable. We are the institution of justice that is the very perpetrator of injustice.
4. In the course of the Elections Case, we became a judiciary that rewrites the Constitution behind the back of Parliament and the Executive because, as it appeared to me, we took a political side in the case. What kind of a judiciary are we really?
5. Above all, your leadership of the judiciary has created in this country both an ELECTORAL CRISIS and subsequently a CONSTITUTIONAL CRISIS.
Now instead of providing leadership and direction, Your Lordship is taking advice from a convicted murderer to mobilize judges and magistrates against the President.
You are reducing the whole judiciary to the activism of Human Rights Defenders Coalition-HRDC. Let me repeat this: YOUR LORDSHIP IS REDUCING THE JUDICIARY TO THE ACTIVISM OF HRDC.
How on earth can we ask HRDC to come to our own Courts to commence litigation on our own behalf as a judicial fraternity? How? (I was sympathetic to your cause until this error was committed and I refuse to be dragged down to lowest point of being confused with HRDC.
In fact, this is the moment I changed my mind: I think you must indeed go and leave the judiciary Your Lordship.)
You are mobilizing us and whipping up our emotions so that we must think with our blood and be angry against the Government of which we are part more than reason with our minds to resolve the judicial, electoral and constitutional crisis which you have created.
While we hypocritically want to blame the mess we have created on the political leadership, the fact is that what we ourselves are doing is politics, and pedestrian politics for that matter.
And this why all this hate against the President? Oh well, because:
(a) He has been challenging and criticizing us
(b) His Government has “requested you” to take leave pending your retirement having accumulated 572 days of leave which, according to Clause 12 of our Conditions of Service, Your Lordship can neither commute for cash nor carry forward beyond your retirement date.
In your insistence to hang on in that office, you will have worked the number of days way beyond your retirement age.
Is it not suspicious Your Lordship that you should be the one leading in abusing the law instead of leading in safeguarding the law? If we learned men are the ones leading in abusing the law, what image of our Judiciary are we creating in the eyes of the world?
I thought Your Lordship would well exercise some *integrity*, *maturity* and *honour* by simply accepting to leave.
The question is: why do you want to stay on when your colleagues such as Jane Ansah and Anthony Kamanga have willingly left exactly in the same manner in which Justice Msosa, Justice Munlo and Justice Kamwambe left for leave pending retirement. Why?
After searching and agonizing over your conduct, Your Lordship is forcing me to believe the allegations I have been hearing.
I think you, Chief Justice Andrew Nyirenda have an unfinished business which you want to complete. I now believe it is true that you made a testament with Malawi Congress Party that you will ensure that you will use and maneuver the Court to remove President Peter Mutharika even after the people have voted for him.
I now believe it is true that you have been instructing some judges to create a situation where we go to a disorderly election so that the Opposition can return to the Court, complain that the Presidential Election was full of irregularities and that you Chief Justice will refuse to swear in President Mutharika but instead declare Chakwera the winner.
I believe Your Lordship’s politicking to doge leaving the judiciary has a sinister motive. Do I want to be part of that? NO!!!
The more I interrogate your motives and methods, the more I think you must go. You have caused enough damage of the judiciary of which some of us are so proud.
My verdict? I refuse to be dragged into this messy judicial activism that is mixing up the judiciary with HRDC and partisan politics. Please GO!
Yours truly, a defender of Justice and clean Judiciary in Malawi
Judge Anonymous
Ohhhh! Anonymous Judge, well written but poor and empty content.
First. Justice Mwaungulu you are praising has submitted that Peter and cronies can not remove or force to retirement the CJ
The President is now senile and unfit to run this country judging by his failure to campaign for the forthcoming elections. Can the CJ tell him to leave office and over his office to his deputy Chilima? Are you aware that Peter has become numb in his brain, hence, unable to remember the principle and meaning of separation of powers.
Are you aware that this is one of the most intelligent and honest judges Malawi has had so far. The current judiciary has tried to correct an error which another crop of judiciary made; probably with a big scone in his/her mouth? It is insane to state that 31% of voters cast is in majority! What type of reasoning was that. Because of that poor judgement we had had conflicts after each election, the worst being the 2019 HRDC demos.
As a country we needed to put things right. So CJ Nyirenda and his team just did that. That for someone to lead Malawi he or she MUST get 50%+1 of the votes cast! This is what we call thinking. And somewhere in the judgement it was stated that NONE OF THE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATES GOT MAJORITY VOTES as per the meaning of the law.
Finally, you cadet has misinformed the country that this is an ambush by the Judiciary. Do you remember that a Special Law Commission (SLC) was set up in this country to review our electoral law and that among the recommendations of the SLC that, for president, Malawi should use 50%+1 from next (2019) PPE?. That Peter and his cronies ambushed the presentation of the Bill by desecrating it and buying some independent and opposition MP to shoot everything down. This is one of the things CJ Nyirenda and team corrected and that is why DPP hates the CJ. You are not even ashamed!
You know what you have written is complete crap and senseless and you go ahead to post it on a public forum? Why?
Justice nyirenda is up to something. His leadership style is questionable. He messed up everything and his hands are too dirty. Apm won that election and the manner in which things unfolded in the judiciary post elections leaves alot to be desired, no wonder our development parteners refused to fund for the fresh polls because injustice nyirenda manipulated the whole system. He could give a deaf ear to corrupt sinister moves chilima had with the judiciary and chilima’s relationship with sunduswayo madise and he pounced on acb to probe the political witch hunt move involving mpinganjira. This whole election drama was a plot engineered by kenyatta himself and jb. By the look of things after jb failed to bring the youth to pave for her coming back, in the likes of late grace she cunningly ventured into the judiciary by mobilizing mtambo to get an early retirement to establish hrdc which has full judicial blessings. Mtambo was tasked to turn chakwera into unstoppable monster who leashed hell on the citizenry after flopped in a highly commended polls worldwide. Mtambo enticed the bloody reverend to back up his mission of terror once apm won a thing which happened. Believe you me had it been chakwera won the elections there wouldn’t be 50%+1 issues and the constitution which has been massively breached by kenyatta would have been protected decissively. The 50%+1 was rejected by all mps +chakwera. Are you telling us that chakwera was bribbed too? This must be kidding. This move was jb’s plan b .and it seems to be planned after 2014 polls as you all remmember chakwera’s unbearable moves at the party level were torelated by the judiciary starting from the party convention which he hijacked and bullied the constitutionally elected ngc. Another evidence which is cryatal clear that kenyatta is behind all this he denied mec legal representation of their choice from south africa and he rushed at mec stopping it from suspending voter registration exercise to protect the vulnerable malawians from the jaws of the deadly virus nCov. Kenyatta is a total shame and failure and will go down in our history as the guy who defiled our constitution for his personal gains. The constitution is crystal clear that the presidential polls must go together with the parliamentary polls but this guy bashed this shamelessly. The vote was not rigged why only nullifying the presidential polls. Kenyatta and his bunch of judges who presided over this case must all go, they are disgusting and a total shame. UN participated in supervising those polls and its very shamefull indeed to lebel them as total trash. KENYATTA MUST FALL!!!!
cardet walila mokweza