Eight people in Chikwawa and Nsanje have been killed by mobs that are attacking men suspected of having power to cause other men’s private parts to mysteriously disappear.
This is heartbreaking. A claim without proof or foundation has led to bloodshed.
This is not just violence. It is confusion coated as truth and it is destroying irreplaceable lives.
Malawi must look at itself in the mirror of these events.
When suspicion overpowers reason, people stop trusting their neighbours and strangers become targets. Innocence becomes dangerous and being different or present suddenly a risk of death.
Mob justice is not justice. It is loss of control. Anger without wisdom. A crowd that forgets that every person in its midst has a name, a family and a future. No community becomes safer by killing the innocent. It becomes weaker.
This must stop. Immediately. Every life taken is a national wound.
I commend the police and everyone working under difficult conditions to restore order and protect life. Law must return to affected communities.
But we must also ask: Why is fear growing so easily?
Often, fear grows where life is hard and opportunities are few.
In places where poverty or desperation speaks louder than hope, rumours become explanations and even false ones begin to feel like truth.
But hardship does not justify harm. Struggle does not justify suspicion. Poverty does not explain murder. There is no economic excuse for taking an innocent life.
Traditional leaders must now stand at the front line of truth—not as observers, but as guardians of peace.
Chiefs must speak in villages, under trees, in gatherings where people listen with respect.
They must dismantle these beliefs word by word-calmly, clearly and repeatedly.
Human life is sacred. No myth is greater than that truth.
Faith leaders must also rise with courage. In churches and mosques, sermons and prayers, they must bring light to dark corners of confusion.
They must remind communities that God does not ask for violence—for faith is not fear-mongering, but restraint.
No success is witchcraft. No progress is a curse. A young man or woman who works hard is not an enemy. Not a threat either.
These lives should be celebrated, not suspected.
It is painful beyond words that young, energetic, hardworking men have been killed for nothing but a rumour.
The Shire Valley districts should not be defined by such tragic tales, but fertile land that feeds families and sustains life.
The plain split by the Shire River should be defined by hardworking farmers who rise before the sun and defy the brutality of floods, droughts and hardship. These districts carry resilience in their soil.
But now, their name is making headlines for the wrong reasons beyond borders. Investors listen. Development partners observe. Opportunities hesitate.
The wave of violence weakens confidence and jobs do not come where uncertainty reigns. Growth does not survive where panic is normal.
This is why peace is not optional, but an economic necessity. It is dignity and the future.
The media, too, must carry this burden responsibly. Words can either calm or harm a nation. Reporting must not inflame fear, but clarify truth and protect life.
I wish I could sit under a tree in Chikwawa. I wish I could walk the soil of Nsanje and speak directly to the people not as headlines describe them, but as human beings.
I would say: “You are not enemies to each other. You are not what rumours say. You are brothers and sisters bound by the same land, struggles and future.”
So, I would urge them to not let fear write their story.
“Let wisdom, unity and life write it instead,” I would say.
Malawi does not need more graves created by misunderstanding. It needs more bridges built by truth.
And it begins here. With one choice. To stop. To listen. To think. To protect life.
