Charity, 31, was arrested in 2022 for allegedly murdering her husband in what she maintains was self-defence.
“It was either him or me,” she said.
Charity, who at the time of the incident was heavily pregnant, claimed that on the fateful day, her now deceased husband had tried to stab her in the stomach during an altercation.
In a 2023 affidavit in support of her release from unlawful detention, she claimed that abuse defined her six-month relationship with the deceased.
“I was often accused of cheating, which made him beat me,” she said.
Charity claimed her husband failed to provide food and on the day of the incident, he allegedly accused her of buying the beef she cooked with money from an extramarital affair.
“He beat me and threw the meat at me which nearly burnt one of my landlord’s children.
“Then he grabbed a knife, threatening to stab me in the stomach on the basis that the child was not his. He started chasing me with the knife. Fortunately, he tripped, fell and dropped it,” she said.
Out of fear, Charity claimed she picked up the knife and stabbed him.
She later reported the matter to her landlord who called the police. She was arrested while her husband was taken to hospital where he died.
At the time of her arrest, Charity further alleged that she was wounded on the stomach and the wound was never treated.
She was granted bail on October 27 2023, nearly a year and seven months, more than the 90-day requirement.
While in pre-trial detention, Charity gave birth in December 2022.
She was sent to a public hospital for about two days and returned to prison.
Chikondi, 38, encountered a similar fate in 2017.
She was arrested for murdering her husband of 12 years and, just like Charity, she maintains it was in self-defence.
Currently serving a 25-year-prison term, Chikondi claimed her marriage was abusive.
This, she claimed, was what led her to stab him when he started beating her. This was after Chikondi had confronted him about sweet potato sales for that fateful day.
“My husband died on the spot,” she said.
At the time of her arrest, the police reminded Chikondi about her rights, including the right to legal representation and the reasons for her arrest.
But during police questioning, she said she had no lawyer.
Chikondi spent one year in pre-trial detention, contrary to the 90-day period that Malawi’s laws stipulate.
During that period, she was assigned a lawyer, but she allegedly had no access to him; hence, failing to apply for bail.
But during trial where she pleaded guilty and was subsequently given a 25-year jail sentence, Chikondi said she was represented by a lawyer.
These real life cases mirror the criminalisation of gender-based violence (GBV) victims when found on the wrong side of the law.
In its report titled The Survivor Behind the Accused: Gender Violence and Due Process Failures in Malawi, the Clooney Foundation for Justice, International Human Rights Clinic and Centre for Human Rights Education, Advice and Assistance (Chreaa), fault Malawi’s criminal justice system for failing GBV victims in such scenarios.
The report, released in June 2025, fault Malawi’s courts for failing to apply international best practices in respect of female GBV victims who are on trial for harming their abusers.
It also faults authorities for failing to consider prolonged domestic abuse that women who commit violent offences may have faced when charging and detaining them.
“As documented by the Advocates of Human Rights, World Coalition Against the Death Penalty and Reprieve, women imprisoned in Malawi for committing offences against life [i.e. murder, assault or manslaughter] have overwhelmingly experienced prolonged domestic violence at the hands of a partner, spouse or another family member, in many cases, the abuse has occurred repeatedly,” reads the report.
“As further detailed by the three organisations, in cases where female accused are survivors of gender-based violence, legal proceedings ignore the context of GBV and the imbalance in power dynamics between an accused woman and her abusive intimate partner or family member. Indeed, the courts in Malawi rarely consider gender-based abuse as a mitigating factor during sentencing. These women are being failed at multiple levels of the justice system.”
Compounding the situation is lack of psychosocial support despite Malawi’s international, regional and domestic obligations to provide such services to individuals with mental health concerns.
The report, therefore, recommends an urgent systemic reform across Malawi’s criminal justice system to protect rights of women accused of violent offences—a majority of whom act in self-defence.
Further reads the report: “Law enforcement, prosecutors and courts must adopt a gender-sensitive, trauma-informed approach from the point of arrest through post-conviction. Investigations should prioritise evidence collection and contextual analysis before arrests are made, particularly where signs of abuse are present.
“Police must be trained to refer such cases to gender-based violence units and to ensure timely access to medical care and legal counsel.”
While we were yet to get a response from the Ministry of Justice, Chreaa executive director Victor Mhango on Friday said the report exposes a troubling, but critical reality that many women who are in conflict with the law are themselves survivors of serious GBV.
“Yet, our criminal justice system continues to treat them solely as offenders, without asking them deeper questions. In too many cases, the courts fail to inquire into the context of abuse that pushed these women to commit offences,” he said.
“Their trauma, histories of violence and lack of protection are ignored leading to unjust outcomes. A woman who killed her abuser in self-defence or after years of suffering should not be treated the same as a violent criminal. Justice must be informed by truth and context.”
While emphasising that GBV survivors deserve fairness and not punishment, Mhango said it would be important for police, prosecutors, magistrates and judges to adopt a trauma-informed and gender-sensitive approach.
He said the report itself is a call to reform how the system treats women not just as accused persons, but as people whose stories matter.
Mhango said: “Screening tools, psychosocial assessments and protective laws must be applied to ensure no survivor is re-victimised by the very same system meant to protect them.”
