Malawi’s Judicial Service Commission (JSC) has been investigating the country’s judiciary following accusations of corruption against judges and court officials.
In October, Malawian lawyer Alexious Kamangila exposed allegations of judicial misconduct on social media platforms, including Facebook.
The JSC announced in late October that it was investigating prominent judge Ken Manda for corruption, and the Malawi Human Rights Commission also said it would begin a public inquiry into judicial accountability in the Southern African country.
While these announcements have been welcomed by the Malawian public, with the commission assuring citizens of a transparent probe, they come at a time when Malawi’s judicial system is fighting to maintain public trust.
According to Patrick Mpaka, president of the Malawi Law Society, the allegations of corruption are very “damaging.”
“The judiciary is an arm of government responsible for enforcing the constitution and the laws. It ought to be independent,” Mpaka told DW. “But what protects the independence of the judiciary is the community’s consensus that such independence is worth protecting.”
“So, when the public is beginning to lose trust in the judiciary, it is a huge problem,” Mpaka said, adding that the judiciary needs public trust so that even unpopular rulings can be accepted.
‘You need a judiciary that can be trusted’
For public trust to be restored, Mpaka says regulatory institutions “must act quickly and transparently” — ensuring that judges who are being named are are either cleared or face appropriate consequences.
However, this can take time.
In 2015, Ghanaian journalist, Anas Aremeyaw Anas, conducted a two-year undercover investigation of his country’s judiciary which resulted in a consequential expose.
Some 22 circuit court judges and magistrates were suspended and 12 High Court judges were placed under investigation.
The suspended judges were among over 100 judicial staff captured in secret video recordings by Anas.
“It was a very big embarrassment to the country and to the judicial service. It has never happened before in our history,” said Wilberforce Asare, a Ghanaian judicial service analyst, who followed the scandal closely.
However, despite the backlash Anas received, and legal challenges surrounding the investigation, Asare believes the reforms kickstarted by Anas’ expose “have yielded a lot of fruits,” Asare told DW.
“The judiciary is now much more respected in Ghana than it was in 2015, when these Anas investigations exposed] the deep-seated corruption that was [present] in Ghana’s judicial service.”
High profile cases
In May 2024, Malawi’s judiciary was already in the spotlight when corruption charges against Vice President Saulos Chilima were mysteriously dropped.
Chilima had denied charges after his arrest in November 2022, alleging that he accepted money in exchange for awarding government contracts. He died in a plane crash in June, receiving a state funeral.
But headline-grabbing cases such as those of the former vice president are only part of a much deeper, systemic issue, according to Malawian lawyer Mpaka.
In June 2021, a task force involving the Malawi Law Society, the Ministry of Justice, the police, Malawi’s Human Rights Commission, and other stakeholders published a statement promising to solve problems in the country’s judicial system.
“But task force never made a lot of progress. As a result, the Law Society started its own initiatives, [alongside the] Ministry of Justice,” said Mpaka, adding that the measures led to recent attempts “to regulate the conduct of judicial officers.”
Malawi’s Judicial Service Commission said that investigations into some cases involving judges allegedly embroiled in corrupt practices will be conducted within a four-week period in November.
The commission also revealed that four cases currently under scrutiny are being handled by some of the judges named by lawyer Alexius Kamangila.
This article has been adapted from an episode of DW’s AfricaLink, a daily podcast packed with news, politics, culture and more.
