Two arrested over circumcision claims

Police in Mulanje have arrested two men in connection to issues surrounding circumcision of minors allegedly conducted in Phalombe by Population Services International (PSI) Malawi, now called Family Health Services (FHS).

The arrests come a week after Weekend Nation reported that 312 minors have sued PSI Malawi claiming the organisation circumcised them without their parents’ consent between 2021 and 2022.

In an interview yesterday, Mulanje Police public relations officer Innocent Moses identified the two as Justin Iron and Vincent Chakhumata Banda who is a medical practitioner.

Moses said the first suspect, 51-year-old Iron, who was working as an agent, is answering a case of conspiracy to commit a felony and obtaining money to defraud others and false pretence.

Banda, who at Mulanje District Health Office, is answering a case of abuse of office.

“It is alleged that Iron was mobilising the clients who were circumcised between 2015 and 2019 by Population Services International to sue for circumcising the children without their parents’ consent.

“He further went as far as collecting K5 000 cash from the children’s parents to have their health passports and national identity cards photocopied,” he said.

Banda is suspected of falsifying the health passports to be used as evidence.

The police spokesperson said upon receiving a complaint they opened a case file before arresting and interrogating the suspects.

The two suspects appeared before Mulanje First Grade Magistrate Court on Thursday to answer their charges before being granted bail.

According to the police spokesperson, the case is expected to come back to court on December 11 2023 where Iron and Banda are expected to take plea.

Meanwhile, FHS has taken into service Mbeya Private Investigators to probe and get to the bottom of the matter.

FHS executive director Jephta Mtema said yesterday his organisation and Population Services International engaged the private investigator.

“To get 312 claimants together and making one claim is somehow not normal. So, we wanted to understand what was really happening and there were the claims coming from because there were a lot of questions about those claims,” he said.