It is World Suicide Prevention Day. Our Staff Writer SANGULUKANI NYIRENDA reports how a colonial-era outlaw cripples a year-old progressive mental health law.
Ayear after Malawi activated the Mental Health Act, possible imprisonment for attempted suicide leaves the nation stuck between a progressive law and a broken caregiving system.
The lawmakers in April 2025 replaced colonial-era punishment with human rights, dignity and quality care, but bypassed Section 229 of the Penal Code that imposes two years imprisonment for attempted suicide.
The policy half-turn faced an early test on September 18 2025 when a 53-year-old constituency returning officer in Nathenje, Lilongwe, attempted to end his own life for reportedly mishandling the high-stakes general election.
The police booked the teacher for attempted suicide before taking him to Nkhoma Mission Hospital.
“It’s unfortunate that Section 229 persists despite the Health Committee of Parliament’s recommendation to repeal it. Suicide survivors need support, not punishment,” says Centre for Human Rights, Advice and Assistance executive director Victor Chagunyuka Mhango.
Attempted suicide exposes the dilemma the Mental Health Act seeks to avert.
Former president Lazarus Chakwera signed it into law on July 2 2025, repealing the Mental Treatment Act of 1948. It took effect four days before the Nathenje incident.
Scrapping conflicting penal laws could open access to care and support, activists say.
For the first time in 77 years, the law recognises that mental distress is not a crime, but a health emergency.
However, how much has changed in practice?
“It is premature to judge. But we can track efforts made by law enforcers and health practitioners,” says Superintendent Alexander Ngwala, deputy director of community policing and police units.
The new law requires police officers to be humane and refer survivors to social welfare officers and mental health clinicians for counseling and other interventions.
Zomba district director of community and social services Paul Simfukwe receives referrals from both police and Zomba Mental Central Hospital.
“Mostly, we have to trace survivors, visit their homes and connect with their close relations for closure. People with suicidal thoughts shouldn’t be counselled in isolation,” he says.
However, Simfukwe says the switch to rights-based approaches and expanded community care remains “work in progress.
“The law is there, but the people don’t know it,” he says.
When lawmakers passed the Bill, activist Henderson Mhango warned that more needed to be done.
“We have to raise awareness so that people understand it and can access mental health services and information affordably,” he said.
A year on, Ngwala says efforts to help police officers, chiefs and ordinary Malawians understand that mental distress is not a crime have not yet started and police officers continue to enforce Section 229.
Meanwhile, police figures show a five percent decline in suicide cases from 597 cases recorded in 2024 to 565 in 2025, but half-year tallies rose from 92 to 95 in the two years, respectively.
The bumpy graph testifies to a mental health system that is neither funded nor coordinated—a minefield where progressive laws die in silence.
To understand the blind spots, follow the money in the national budget.
At Zomba Central Mental Hospital, nothing has changed financially.
“There is no special provision in the funding since the Mental Health Bill was enacted. We only get the budget for drugs and other related transactions, but what we have done is improve in our approaches,” says clinician Harry Kawiya.
He speaks for the only public psychiatric hospital in the nation of over 20 million where St John of God Hospitallers’ private clinics in Lilongwe and Mzuzu treat a lucky few.
When asked what the Ministry of Health is doing to make the new law work and widely known, Secretary for Health and Sanitation Dr Dan Namarika and the ministry’s spokesperson Benedicto Mbewe referred the questions to each other.
For families hit by suicide, silence costs lives prematurely.
The reported suicides may have been averted with accessible clinics, toll-free helplines, psychosocial consellors and helping hands.
However, the country’s mental health system yawns for modernity, mindset change, decentralised services, adequate funding and an end to oppressive sanctions.
Meanwhile, Malawians yearn to learn what the new laws entail, including how they can help make it work and end stigma.
“We still support decriminalisation,” says Health Committee of Parliament chairperson Anthony Masamba.
“We recognise the concerns of practitioners and activists who feel policymakers have not done enough. That is why we are committed to making mental health services part of the essential healthcare package for all Malawians. Quality care means accessible counselling, psychiatric services and psychosocial support delivered with dignity and continuity.
