But then, my lord, came the pardon of the “Blair Six,” and the melody turned sour. It appears somebody, somewhere, is working overtime to dismantle the foundation of the ‘Mapuya 2.0’ brand before the paint has even dried. Are we to believe that Mapuya, in his rightful wisdom, decided to open the prison gates for men whose heinous hospitality toward the hapless Blair in 2019 shocked the conscience of the world?
Lest we forget, Blair did not simply “pass away” in police custody; he was escorted to the afterlife via a well-documented itinerary of torture. This was no mystery; the Nyasaland Commission on Human Rights, led by the affable former Ombudsman and people’s own anti-corruption iron lady, Marita, laid it all bare. Even the government admitted liability, haggling over the price of a life like vendors at a Saturday market offering K45 million for a soul the family valued at K331 million.
This was a high-profile victory for justice, my lord. After years of legal gymnastics, the original list of 13 suspects was reduced to a convicted six. They were handed sentences of 15 to 20 years.
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Yet, they have barely had time to get used to the prison porridge, completing not even a year of their stretch before being gifted a ‘get out of jail free’ card. Now, we are told the “Procedure” is the shield. Mapuya doesn’t draw up the list; the Nyasaland Prison Service does though it can only recommend.
But my lord, prison officials are many things, but they are rarely suicidal. They know that including ineligible high-profile killers on a pardon list is a career-ending move. This leads me to believe in the ‘ghost of the secretariat.
Someone we don’t know, but who clearly appreciates the service of the Blair Six must have quietly tucked their names into the file, hoping the public was too distracted by the CDF reggae to notice the shuffle. There is a ghostly consistency to these pardons that continues to baffle the mind. It reminds me of the time the wildlife trafficking kingpin, Line Yahaya (mwana waKuba), was ushered out of the back door during Lazaro’s tenure, leaving enough egg on the faces of authorities to make an omelette for the entire Sadc region.
I am compelled to repeat the question, my lord: Who truly benefits from this mercy? What was the “motivation” provided to the officials who hand-delivered these six names to the presidential desk? This pardon has left a messy, high-protein splatter on the faces of those who claim to be the guardians of the law. I choose to believe, perhaps naively, that Mapuya was kept “out of the loop.” If so, he has a golden opportunity to do the “needful” and reverse this absurdity before the citizens exclaim “Mama yangu!” and realise the game was rigged from the start.
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