Rogue and vagabond law faces amendment

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The Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) and Parliamentary Committee on Legal Affairs are set to start consultations on the review of Section 184 of the Penal Code which covers rogue and vagabond.

This follows a meeting that took place in Lilongwe on Friday between the committee, the DPP Masauko Chamkakala, Solicitor General Allison Mbang’ombe, Attorney General Thabo Chakaka Nyirenda and officials from the Ministry of Justice.

The meeting came a week after the Centre for Human Rights Education, Advice and Assistance (Chreaa) and the Southern Africa Litigation Centre (Salc) engaged the committee in Lilongwe where they discussed numerous issues surrounding delays in review of the section, among others.

Section 184 of the Penal Code criminalises a person who has no visible means of subsistence, found loitering and cannot give a good account of himself.

High Court of Malawi Judge Zione Ntaba on July 22 2022 ordered thatthe section be reviewed within 24 months from the date of the ruling.

Ministries of Justice and Homeland Security and the Inspector General of Police, working with the Legislature through the Speaker of Parliament and relevant committees, were tasked to effectively review the entire section and report back to the court by July 22 2024.

This was apart from declaring the section unconstitutional on the basis that it is tailored to influence arbitrary arrests on assumptions of criminality.

In an interview after the meeting, Legal Affairs Committee chairperson Peter Dimba said the DPP has been tasked to formally write the court acknowledging Ntaba’s ruling prior to the start of the consultative processes.

He said: “We have also highlighted the need for the police prosecutors to take notice of the fact that they cannot arrest someone based on these vagrancy laws, so this has to be clear.

“Subordinate courts have to also take note of the fact that the vagrancy laws were set aside and, therefore, some of these cases that come to them have to be simply thrown out because such laws were declared unconstitutional laws.”

In a separate interview, Chamkakala said while they do not have a specific timeline for the consultative processes, they are mindful of the court’s given time-frame.

On when his office will formally write the court to acknowledge the ruling, Chamkakala said: “This can be any day. But from my understanding, we will be working with the committee”.

Reacting to the resolutions between the committee and the DPP, Salc criminal justice cluster lead Chikondi Chijozi said the expectation is that those that were tasked to review the section will take into consideration the court’s given timeframe.

The court order stated that failure to amend the section will continue creating problems for the Judiciary. The ruling followed a judicial review case number 28 of 2018 of Henry Banda and two others versus the State in which they were challenging sweeping exercises that were declared unconstitutional.

Lloyd Chitsulo 1 week ago

56 2 minutes read