MALAWI: Law Expert Faults Judicial Middlemen in Malawi
Luke Bisani
One of the law experts in Malawi, Prof. Fidelis Edge Kanyongolo, has faulted the middlemen in the Malawi judiciary system, arguing that it delays justice and accountability.
Speaking during a public lecture at the Catholic University of Malawi under the theme Cutting out the middlemen: Direct Action in Promoting Judicial Independence and Accountability in Malawi, Prof. Kanyongolo said middlemen lengthen the chain of accountability and increase the cost of the judicial system.
Prof. Kanyongolo added that using middlemen affects the process of conveying the message from the citizens to the relevant authorities for action.
“The other problem is lost in transition; maybe some of you have played this game before whereby people are on the line and the first person whispers a message and you pass it on to another person and it gets to the other, and in the end, you find the message has been distorted,” said Kanyongolo.
He further added that middlemen have agendas that might be different from the agendas of the citizens in the judicial system.
“And the trouble comes in when agendas are not aligned; the middlemen may delay or sometimes choose not to act because the agenda brought forward to them is not their priority,” he added.
He then advised the citizens to resist the dependency syndrome of using the middlemen instead of having direct engagement with issues that affect them.
The Catholic University of Malawi has been organizing public lectures to give students the opportunity to learn more about diverse disciplines.
