Even in the face of a gagging court order, private-practice lawyer Alexious Kamangila yesterday had a field day naming and shaming what he alleged are corrupt lawyers in Malawi.
In a live Facebook session, with thousands of followers, Kamangila named judges, public and private-practice lawyers he believes are corrupt and in some cases provided circumstantial evidence to prove his allegations.
From his list, he named three justices of appeal, two judges from the High Court, two public officers and three private-practice lawyers. But he also mentioned some judges and lawyers he thinks have integrity.
He cited delayed cases and summary judgements, for cases that should have been defended, as indicators of possible corruption.
Kamangila, who has been trending for weeks for his resolve to fight corruption in the law profession, claimed that some of the lawyers openly boast of their corruption.
This is only a second time, in the past three years, that lawyers, including judges, have become a subject of corruption allegations in public.
The Anti-Corruption Bureau, under the leadership of Martha Chizuma, indicated that among a long list of suspects to have allegedly received bribes from United Kingdom-based Malawian businessperson Zuneth Sattar, were judicial officers.
Of course, no judicial officer has been arrested in relation to these allegations as cases related to Sattar have generally gone cold.
Ironically, in his presentation yesterday, Kamangila heaped praise on Chizuma for her resolve to fight corruption, saying the former director general for the graft-busting body did a good job.
Meanwhile, the Legal Affairs Committee of Parliament has initiated an investigation into the matter, particularly on allegations against Justice Ken Manda—who previously was also a subject of discussion in Parliament over a judgement.
In an interview last evening, Legal Affairs Committee chairperson Peter Dimba confirmed of a closed-door meeting with MLS on the alleged misconduct against Judge Manda based on Kamangila’s posts.
Dimba said the society told the committee that they have received complaints against Justice Manda and the same have been reported to the Judicial Service Commission (JSC).
“But they also indicated that the rot is beyond Justice Manda. Of course, they stressed that there are so many judicial officers of integrity in the Judiciary who are doing a great job. But there are few bad apples that have tainted the image of the whole Judiciary,” explained Dimba.
He said they are looking at these fresh allegations of Justice Manda alongside another issue that Parliament referred to the committee on a judgement in favour of Alfred Gangata against Gamu Filling Station.
He said the other question the committee was interested in was to appreciate how this issue can be remedied to which MLS said an investigation against concerned judicial officers is one solution. According to Dimba, MLS proposed serious disciplinary action, if any, of the judicial officers is found in the wrong.
Coincidentally, as the probe continues, Kamangila has requested information from MLS under the Access to Information Act. Among the sought information are a report of a task force instituted to investigate allegations of professional misconduct against Justice Manda and some lawyers, complaints received by the society against its members in respect of their dealings with Justice Manda, and responses received from the Chief Justice on the society’s correspondence on Justice Manda’s professional conduct.
Kamangila had been posting on social media names of lawyers he alleges are corrupt, which landed him into a defamation lawsuit before an injunction was granted to stop him from further making allegations against some judicial officers.
But he has literally ignored the court order and continued to name those he believes are corrupt.
“Please sue,” wrote Kamangila in response to a letter notifying him of a defamation suit from one of the judges. The ‘Please sue’ response has yielded heavy social media frenzy with some designing T-shirts bearing this line.
Meanwhile, WhatsApp groups have been formed to support Kamangila’s cause.
One of the groups, we have followed, named Malawi Judiciary Anti-Corruption Movement, has over 900 members with Kamangila’s face on the display picture.
“On this forum, members will propose what steps to be taken on corruption in the Malawi Judicial Services so that the arrogance by the authorities is effectively challenged through organised societal and civil pressure on the Judiciary, the Legislature and the Presidency to take appropriate radical action,” reads the purpose of the group.
Out of this group, another one has been established specifically for a petition to relevant authorities to consider impeaching corrupt judges and push for constitutional amendments to improve accountability in the Presidency and Judiciary.
Besides deliberations on how to deal with corruption in the Judiciary, others have taken advantage of the space to share tales of pain and frustration on delayed and denied justice.
We reached out to the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) if they have taken interest in these allegations but the spokesperson Egrita Ndala said: “I need to contact our report centre.”
That was around 13 minutes before 5pm yesterday. She did not revert while the ACB acting director general Hillary Chilomba did not respond to our questionnaire.
