Flush out clients and arrest them instead
Dear judge Mbadwa,
My lord, the events of Upper Bawi in the Capital might have already reached your esteemed tribunal. But I want to officially register my dismay at the way the Nyasaland’s Ministry of Gender and Community Development treated the underage girls it so claimed it had flushed out of lodges and rest houses and bars in the dusty city.
My lord, it is our conviction that the ministry rounded up wrong people in their operation. The operation should have focused on people who are responsible for the girls’ misery; those potbellied and cat-bearded married men who are willing to abuse minors too young to be their daughters to satisfy their libido.
My lord, the operation should have centred on people who traffic the girls from their remote homes to work in their brothels after deceiving them that they had found some jobs for them.
My lord, the operation should have hinged on brothel owners who continue enticing the girls into sexual servitude.
I was expecting to hear from the ministry, my lord, that they have arrested ‘clients’ they found abusing girls because I know it is still an offence to sleep with a minor in Nyasaland. Isn’t it written that whosoever “engages in sexual activity with a child shall be guilty of an offence liable imprisonment for 21 years?”
Why then did they leave scot-free the man they claimed they found in one of the rooms with the girls?
It was a noble act to rescue the girls, some of whom contracted sexually transmitted infections; but wait a minute? Where is that irresponsible person who left a minor with an STI after satisfying his lust?
Our Nyasaland Constitution clearly states my lord that “children are entitled to be protected from economic exploitation or any treatment , work or punishment that is likely to be harmful to their health or to their physical, mental or spiritual or social development” but it appears the Gender officials forgot about that.
My lord, I am compelled to ask; where is that guy who has made a minor pregnant. These people should be answering charges of defilement because they are a danger to society.
It is sad that the victims have been treated as if they were offenders and publicly ridiculed for the ‘crimes’ they were forced to commit by people who have not yet been arrested.
My lord, we want the ministry not only to review its approach in conducting raids but also stop the tendency of treating victims as if they are offenders.
Let the real perpetrators be brought to book for once if we are to completely check the tendency of abusing young girls.
We also want a public apology from the minister and her team.
Regards,
John Citizen.
