The Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) has broken its silence on claims by lawyer Alexious Kamangila that some judicial officers are corrupt.
Two weeks ago The Nation asked the graft-busting agency if it intended to investigate Kamangila’s allegations of corruption in the Judiciary as posted on social media platforms, notably Facebook.
In a written response on Wednesday, ACB principal public relations officer Egrita Ndala said: “The bureau is following this social media issue with keen interest.”
She had earlier stated that she needed to contact the report centre of the bureau which records complaints on issues bordering on corruption worth the bureau’s attention. The report centre receives reports or can also pick issues from the media.
However, the ACB has not conclusively said if it has formed an opinion to investigate these allegations.
Asked if he has reported to ACB or been contacted for information, Kamangila said “reporting would be legitimising systematic passiveness to corruption which has been the norm for ACB now”.
He said: “Since the arrest of [former ACB director general] Martha Chizuma, the ACB is not seeming to fight corruption. Now, the fight against corruption isn’t just about fighting it, it is also the appearance of fighting it is a critical component.
“The past three weeks, there have been enough leads for an arrest to be made. In fact, in relation to corruption in the Judiciary, since 2020, there have been a lot of revelations that were enough for, at the bare minimum, three judges to be arrested. ACB is acting scared of some self-made sacred cows. This must stop now.” Both the Judicial Service Commission and the Malawi Human Rights Commission have opened separate investigations into the allegations while the Legal Affairs Committee of Parliament said it was working on impeachment procedures for judges.
