Judge Usiwa-usiwa no more

Judge Nyakwawa Usiwa-usiwa has died in a road accident in Lilongwe today.

Confirming the development, Registrar of the High Court and Supreme Court of Appeal, Jack N’riva said he died at around 3 o’clock in the afternoon at Kamuzu Central Hospital where he was rushed to following the accident.

He becomes the second of the recently appointed judges to die.

 Usiwa-usiwa’s appointment in December last year followed that of four new High Court judges on October 13, Joseph Chigona, Ruth Chinangwa, Dorothy de Grabrielle and George Bakuwa.

However, Bakuwa died barely two weeks after his appointment.

Usiwa-usiwa’s appointment brought the total number of High Court judges to 26.

The former chief resident magistrate at the Blantyre Magistrate’s Court, also served as Deputy Registrar of the High Court of Malawi.

He made headlines when he slapped Malawi’s first publicly known gay couple Steven Monjeza and Tiwonge Chimbalanga to 14 years imprisonment with hard labour for gross indecency and unnatural acts.

Details of his burial are not yet known.