Norway creates safer world for Mzuzu female inmates

Chief commissioner of prisons Kennedy Nkhoma has commended the Norwegian Embassy and the Centre for Legal Assistance (Cela) for creating a safer world for female inmates at Mzuzu Prison.

Nkhoma said this in Mzuzu yesterday when Norwegian Ambassador Kikkan Haugen toured the prison where Norway and Cela have constructed modern cells complete with beds, showers, computer rooms and classrooms.

The expansion has made the Northern Region’s largest correctional complex a tale of two worlds, with the modernity of the 60-bed women’s division contrasting sharply with the hugely dilapidated male section where 406 were occupying colonial cells with a capacity of 150 inmates.

There is need for more cells to lessen overcrowding in the male zone as well as to eliminate depressing dichotomy at a time gender equality has become a global buzzword, said Nkhoma.

Presently, Cela and former vice-president Khumbo Kachali are building cells with the capacity of 100 inmates each, which are earmarked for male convicts and those remanded.

“There is need to focus on the positives,” said Haugen. “With Cela’s initiatives, the condition of women inmates have reached standard which are acceptable.”

Human rights and equal treatment are key pillars of Norway’s foreign policy, said the ambassador. He pledged continued assistance to Cela. The partnership for better lives in prisons started in 2007 and was renewed in December last year.

Nkhoma cited the Norwegian Embassy and Cela as major friends of Malawi prison’ which he likened to a valley of dry bones, a reference to the biblical tale of Prophet Ezekiel.