CONCERNED CITIZENS PEN CHIEF JUSTICE, DEMAND RULE OF LAW TO PREVAIL ON ALLEGATIONS RAISED BY MR ALEXIOUS KAMANGILA

DEMAND FOR THE RULE OF LAW TO PREVAIL ON THE ALLEGATIONS RAISED BY MR ALEXIOUS KAMANGILA

1. INTRODUCTION

Malawi is a country that is governed by laws and all citizens are supposed be law-abiding. We are heavily concerned by the fact that Mr. Alexious Kamangila is allowed to be an exception and is entertained by your office to use mob justice to move your honourable office to take action on baseless allegations against Honourable members of the High Court and Supreme Court of Appeal. We write herein about the illegality of mob justice in Malawi, the mental health of Mr. Kamangila, the incompetence of the Judicial Service Commission and the Legal Affairs Committee to handle criminal cases of corruption, and we finally demand that Mr Kamangila should produce evidence of corruption to appropriate bodies if he is serious about fighting corruption.

2. MOB JUSTICE IS ILLEGAL IN MALAWI

Where any person including lawyers or judges have committed criminal offences, evidence of such conduct is supposed to be deposited with law enforcement agencies such as the Malawi Police Service (MPS) and the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB). In the case of Mr Kamangila, if he had evidence of corruption against the judges and the lawyers, such as one that the judges received bribes, he would be free to paste such evidence on his Facebook page and present the same to the ACB or MPS. If, for example, Justice Manda received “sikono” in the Salima Sugar injunction matter, what Mr Kamangila should have done would be to show his followers on Facebook such evidence and then present the same evidence to your office and the ACB. It is because Mr. Kamangila has no evidence of corruption against any of the judges and the lawyers that he has now chosen to use mob justice.

We do not know which Lecturer taught Mr. Kamangila the Law of Evidence at the University of Malawi but certainly Mr Kamangila is not a lawyer properly so called. Lawyers’ cases or positions on matters revolve around evidence. Mr Kamangila does not care about evidence and we do not know whether he studied the Law of Evidence at the University. Unfortunately, highly educated people including lawyers and Senior Counsel have joined Kamangila and they do not care whether Kamangila has evidence of corruption against the judicial officers and the lawyers or not. You cannot just wake up and allege that so and so are corrupt individuals without producing evidence to support the same. A ruling by a judicial officer in favour of one person and against another person cannot amount to corruption at law. If this is evidence of corruption, then all judges of our courts are corrupt because whenever a judicial officer is delivering judgments or rulings, there is a loser and a winner. And if all those who lose cases are to follow Kamangila’s reasoning, then we shall demolish the public confidence in the Judiciary, without justification. If finding in a judgment in favour of one person amounts to corruption, why does Mr Kamangila and his followers take this evidence to ACB so that the judges who have ruled against the clients of the bad losers should be arrested? They are failing to take such evidence to ACB because they know that it is not the kind of evidence which can prove corruption at all. And then they resort to Facebook and your noble office, Honourable the Chief Justice, is moved to act? Why is the Malawi Law Society and Mr Kamangila not depositing any evidence of corruption against the judges and the lawyers with ACB? Is it because they know that they do not have tangible evidence of corruption? And they resort to tarnishing the image of our judicial officers and lawyers instead of gathering real evidence of corruption and presenting it to the law enforcement agents so that the judges and lawyers should be arrested and prosecuted? It is very sad to note that Judges are being accused of corruption merely because they ruled against one of the parties in certain cases which party was represented by one of the bad losers. This crusade is surely a crusade against judicial independence. We have information that there are two law firms of bad losers in Lilongwe who are behind Mr Kamangila’s baseless outbursts all because they lost more than 10 hopeless cases before the impugned judicial officers. We know the law firms and they are publicly supporting Kamangila, without themselves waging a direct war against the Judges. If these bad losers had won the cases, they would not be supporting Kamangila and we shudder to note that your noble office has joined the bandwagon of Kamangila and those bad losers. 

The other point that shows that Mr Kamangila and his gang of bad losers are not lawyers worthy the salt is that they are passing final judgments against both the judicial officers and the lawyers alike, without first allowing the impugned officers of the law to be heard. Mr Kamangila and his handclappers are declaring the Judges and the lawyers “corrupt”, thus passing final findings, without hearing out those they are condemning first. Even those who have never been to Law School will realize that what Kamangila and his associates are doing is not justice. Principles of natural justice demand that before you condemn a person, they must be heard and that you cannot be a Judge in your own cause. This is why a Court of Law or any person who has authority or has given himself authority to condemn others will not proceed to find you guilty or liable without giving you a chance to defend yourself.  It is only in kangaroo courts like the one Mr. Kamangila has set up on Facebook that one is allowed to lay charges against innocent people, prosecute the innocent people in absentia, and condemn them unheard. Mr Kamangila is defying all principles of natural justice and it is surprising that his followers including purported lawyers and purported Senior Counsel plus the Malawi Law Society are clapping hands for him. This is the mob justice that Malawi Law Society and all law-abiding Malawians should have condemned without delay but it is obvious that the Malawi Law Society is with Kamangila. Although Kamangila has demonized Judges of the High Court and Supreme Court of Appeal including Justice Nyakaunda Kamanga JA, SC for, inter alia, finding him guilty of perjury, the Malawi Law Society is just watching and cannot take any action against him.

We are not saying fighting corruption in the country is bad. All we are saying is that if there is evidence of corruption, bribes and abuse of office against the judges and the lawyers, Mr Kamangila and his team should put it up on Facebook and present it to the ACB and to your noble office. Kamangila and his team will not do so because they have no evidence whatsoever. They are into mob justice and almost the whole country is clapping hands for this executor of mob justice and his team. Even the once respected Social Media Influencer, Onjezani Kenani, who used to fundraise for noble causes, is now raising funds to finance mob justice against judicial officers and lawyers. One would forgive Mr. Kenani because he is not a lawyer and is not conversant with the Law of Evidence. He may therefore be justified to join the bandwagon of the traditional court that Kamangila has set up where the adage “pafuka utsi pali moto” (where there is smoke, there is fire) is used to find innocent people guilty of corruption, as was the case during the one party era where the traditional courts used to convict innocent people and order their execution or imprisonment on the basis of that adage, without real evidence. Mr, Kamangila, who advocates against death sentence, has shown that he could have been one of those judicial officers convicting people under pafuka utsi pali moto proverb if he had been sitting on the traditional courts back in the 70s and 80s. It is sad that your noble office has given Kamangila unnecessary attention out of the mob justice that he is executing with his followers on selected lawyers and judges.

3. MENTAL INSTABILITY OF MR KAMANGILA

There is evidence that Mr. Kamangila is mentally sick. He confessed it on his Facebook page and addressed a meeting where he openly stated that he was on the verge of committing suicide as a result of his mental problems. This is not a man that should be taken seriously by your noble office. The fact that his Facebook outbursts are not supported by evidence, which ought to have been displayed on his Facebook page and tendered to ACB and the MPS or to your noble office, is evidence enough that this guy is a lunatic. Who, in their right senses, can accuse judges and lawyers of giving or receiving bribes without producing a single proof?  Your noble office should be too slow to follow this patient.

4. INCOMPETENCE OF JUDICIAL SERVICE COMMISSION AND LEGAL AFFAIRS COMMITTEE TO HANDLE CRIMINAL MATTERS OF CORRUPTION

The Judicial Service Commission (JSC) and the Legal Affairs Committee (LAC) of Parliament have no legal competence to handle criminal cases of corruption, as these bodies deal with administrative, and not, criminal cases. If Mr. Kamangila is talking about corruption, allow him to compile his evidence, post it on his Facebook page, and give it to the ACB and the MPS. Unless Mr. Kamangila and his bandwagon are not serious about fighting corruption in the country, they should not allow the JSC and the LAC to handle these criminal cases of corruption. They should lodge their cases with the statutory body that was created by Parliament for dealing with corruption ie the ACB. By the way, which law authorizes the LAC to investigate a judicial officer? LAC may be acting without jurisdiction, after all.

5. CONCLUSION

Finally, we make the following demands:

1. Your noble office should compel Mr. Kamangila to lodge a formal complaint with your office against the Judges and the lawyers within 3 days from the date hereof, and the complaint should be accompanied by evidence of corruption capable of proving his allegations beyond reasonable doubt. Before tendering such evidence to your office, he should make it public on his Facebook page so that the public should understand the basis of his allegations.
2. Your noble office should, immediately upon receipt of the evidence of corruption, transfer such evidence to the ACB or the MPS to arrest the Judges and the lawyers so that they should defend themselves formally before the Courts. Mob justice has no place in Malawi
3. If Mr. Kamangila does not file a formal complaint with your office, accompanied by evidence of corruption, he should be dismissed as a busybody and lunatic who should not waste your precious time.
4. By copy of this letter, the Malawi Law Society is requested to take disciplinary action against Mr. Kamangila for conduct bringing the profession of the law into disrepute and for demonizing and scandalizing judicial officers without basis, if he fails to file a formal complaint with evidence before the noble office of the Chief Justice within the said 3 days.

Yours sincerely,

CONCERNED CITIZENS