Prisons food crisis hurts TB inmates

Inmates taking tuberculosis (TB) drugs have expressed frustrations with the lack of food in the country’s prisons, saying the situation puts them at risk of developing resistance to the medication.

The anger wasexpressed at the weekend when The Nation conducted spot-checks in some of the major Malawi Prison Service (MPS) establishments.

Findings of the samplings indicated that the food shortages have greatly affected TB inmates on drugs as they are required to take proper meals.

In interviews facilitated by Centre for Human Rights Education, Advice and Assistance (Chreaa) on Saturday, a Chichiri Prison inmates, Lucius Lipenga said they are relying on well-wishers to provide them with food which does not happen on a regular basis.

He said: “For the weeks there has been no food here my body has become extremely weak because the medication requires that I should have food regularly. Like yesterday [Friday] I had porridge and I am not sure if I will eat today because there is no food.”

Lipenga, 55, who was convicted of murder in 2021 but is yet to be sentenced, said the situation is better for inmates that have relatives that bring them food.

He said his relations cannot travel from Mulanje daily to provide him with food.

In separate interviews, two other inmates on TB medication at Zomba Central Prison and Maula Prison in Lilongwe, Johans Banda and Reuben Masamba, also expressed fears of developing resistance to the drugs.

Said Banda: “With no food then we are just relying on well-wishers, otherwise we have been taking the drugs on empty stomachs.”

MPS last week attributed the food crisis to reluctance by suppliers to deliver foodstuffs, especially maize, due to fresh demands they are making to adjust upwards the prices.

Chreaa executive director Victor Mhango said in an interview on Saturday that failure to provide the TB inmates with proper food is a setback as nutrition is an essential part.

He said: Without food they cannot take their medication and failure to take their medication would result in developing resistance to the drugs which may result in death.

“It’s very sad that instead of things getting better in our prisons, things are getting worse. We are keeping our prisoners in very inhumane conditions and failure to provide food for them is torture and cruel treatment which is clearly prohibited in our Constitution.”

Mhango further said it would be important for the government to prioritise decongesting the prisons.

But in a separate telephone interview, Prisons Service national spokesperson Chimwemwe Shaba said the prisons have found themselves in the current situation due to an increase both in number of inmates and demand for food.

He said this is why despite donors supporting them through, among others, giving prisons machinery for farming and the establishments themselves having good harvests; they fail to meet demand for the prisons.

Shaba said to address the current situation, Prisons Service has procured 25 000 bags of maize from Agricultural Development and Marketing Corporation that have since been dispatched to various establishments based on demand.

He said the Prisons Service has since identified a 500-hectare (ha) farm at Kamwanjiwa in Mzimba for farming and another 600ha farm in Kasungu and structures are being set up.

Prisons Service records show that the number of inmates across the country’s prisons fluctuates between 11 000 and 13 000.