Mtekama’s death inquest commences

The Chief Resident Magistrate’s Court sitting as a coroner in Lilongwe on Wednesday commenced an inquest into the death of former Director of Criminal Investigations Department at the Malawi Police Service, Bob Mtekama.

The commencement of the inquest follows a direction by High Judge Anabel Mtalimanja who granted the State an order to conduct the inquiry following the death of Mtekama on August 4, 2020.

On Wednesday, two senior police officers; Commissioner for Southern Lenford Kaphika, Regional Welfare Officer for Southern Region Okesta Kapalawa and another Sledge Yusuf who is Retired Police Commissioner for Southern Region testified before the court as witnesses.

All the witnesses have told the court that they are not sure what killed the deceased saying that medical personnel can be in a better position to relay facts of his death.

“The aim is really to find out the facts surrounding the demise of the deceased, so what the coroner is trying to achieve is to know all the facts, basically how did he die, who was involved in his death and what was the cause of his death.

“This is why it is imperative that as part of the inquest we tend to ask the exhumation of the body so that there can be a postmortem that must be done so that we can scientifically and cogently find out what the cause of death is,” said Pilirani Masanjala, Senior State Advocate.

Before his death, Mtekama was at the centre of investigations into several high profile cases, including the 2014 death of Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) Director of Corporate Affairs, Issa Njaunju.

The State, through the office of Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) had asked the High Court to grant the order for an inquest to investigate and establish the cause of Mtekama’s death.

Unconfirmed report indicate that Mtekama died due to Covid-19 as his body was treated that of a coronavirus corpse.

The State asked the High court to grant the order adding that Mtekama’s relatives were not satisfied with the reports that that the deceased succumbed to Covid-19 quarreling that he was poisoned.