Malawi court rejects same-sex marriage
By Lameck Masina, VOA News Africa.
Malawi’s Constitutional Court on Friday dismissed the case of two applicants who wanted it to legalize same-sex relationships. State lawyers welcomed the ruling while lawyers for the applicants expressed disappointment.
The applicants, Jan Willem Akster from the Netherlands and a Malawian transgender man, Jana Gonani, brought their case to the Constitutional Court for interpretation of Malawi’s anti-homosexuality laws following their arrest in 2021.
Akster is currently facing nine charges of sexual abuse and sodomy, while Gonani is charged with unnatural offenses.
They said Malawi’s laws violate their fundamental rights, including a right to privacy and dignity.
However, Judges Joseph Chigona, Vikochi Chima and Chimbizgani Kacheche rejected their arguments.
Chigona said the applicants failed to bring evidence of how the provisions in the country’s laws discriminated against homosexuals.
Chigona also said Akster failed to prove that Malawi’s laws violated his right to health.
“The first applicant was asked in a cross examination if he had ever accessed a public hospital and replied that he had gone to Zomba Central Hospital after he had been involved in a car accident,” Chigona said. “When he was asked about his experience there, especially if he was asked about his sexual orientation before he was assisted, he said he was not. He actually said that he was medically assisted so well. The only complaint he had about the facility were spiders in the ward.”
Chigona said the court also dismissed claims that Malawi police violated Gonani’s right to privacy when they ordered him to undress, to confirm his claims that he was transgender.
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