They were ordinary Malawians who took on the State and won. A plastic bag vendor from Blantyre, a Kasungu disc jockey, a bar patron and a fried-fish vendor challenged an oppressive colonial law that had long been used to criminalise poverty while sparing the privileged. Their courage reshaped Malawi’s constitutional jurisprudence and secured landmark victories for millions of citizens.
Yet none of them lived to see the government implement the reforms the courts ordered. Nearly a decade ago, Mayeso Gwanda, a plastic bag vendor from Chilomoni Township in Blantyre, became an unlikely champion of constitutional rights after challenging the colonial-era offence of being a “rogue and vagabond”. Every morning, he left home around 3am and walked about 15 kilometres because he could not afford transport.
On March 20 2015, at about 4am, three police officers stopped him near Chichiri Roundabout as he walked to the market carrying his merchandise. Although he explained he was going to work, police arrested him, detained him until March 23 and charged him under Section 184(1)(c) of the Penal Code with being a “rogue and vagabond”. MWNation News-block-paragraph”>Rather than accepting his fate, Gwanda challenged the law, arguing that it violated the constitutional rights of poor people to dignity, personal security and freedom of movement.
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In 2017, the High Court agreed, declaring part of Section 184 unconstitutional and ordering government to reform vague criminal provisions that enabled arbitrary arrests. Three years later, another group of ordinary citizens mounted a similar challenge. On the night of March 27 2018, Henry Banda was working as a disc jockey at American Bar and Bottle Store in Kasungu when police conducted one of the routine “sweeping exercises” that rounded up people found in public at night.
Among those arrested alongside him were Ishmael Mwale, who was having a drink at Culture Club car park, and Sikweya Supiyani, who was selling fried fish at the same bar. Court records show the 23 people arrested were never told why they were being detained. They spent the night in police custody before being charged the following day with being “rogues and vagabonds” under Section 184(1)(b) of the Penal Code.
They later told the court police pressured them to plead guilty by warning they would otherwise be remanded to prison. Each was fined K3 000 or, in default, sentenced to three months’ imprisonment with hard labour.
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