It is a heartbreaking situation. Victims of defilement continue to cry foul with no hope of getting justice soon. Sadly, the girls were abused by people who were supposed to protect them.

To the extent some of the suspects are walking scot free still living in the same community with the victims. This is creating a lot of pain for the victimized girls.

"Every time I see him, I am scared. I feel like he will do to me what he did. At times I feel he will kill me,” said Gertrude, not a real name.

Gertrude is a standard 7 learner at a public primary school in Dedza. She was sexually defiled alongside her friend Rose, not the real name by the same man right in their village.

There was a gulewamkulu funeral in the village. And as culturally expected, gulewamkulu masked dancers were all over and a scare to children. As children run in all directions to hide, Getrude and Rose burst into the house of a monster.

Their fear for Nyau drove them straight into the house of a sex maniac. Here is where Getrude and Rose were defiled; one after the other.

When Gertrude and Rose reported their ordeal; the man who did this was arrested then released on bail. The man returned to live in the same village while he awaits trial. He lives there to this day.

"Since that day I feel pain in my heart. My private parts itch and I discharge white substances often. He destroyed my life. He took away my future. I hate to see him around,” complained Rose.

Some hundred kilometres west of Chikwawa district lives a girl we want to call Marjorie.

She stopped attending classes at Ngowo primary school after a teacher there defiled her.

But the entire system defends the teacher. The teacher was arrested and granted court bail. The suspect Marvelous Nkhalamba is now on the run after failing to show up during the court judgement at Chikwawa Magistrate on 4 October this year.

15-year-old Marjorie was in standard seven at the time.

“When I was in standard six he proposed love to me but I refused and when I went to standard seven he also proposed love to me and I agreed. At one time he invited me to his house where we had sexual intercourse once,” said Majorie.

This incident occurred in January, 2024 and since then Majorie has not been going to school citing hostile environment by the teachers and community leaders who were in full defense of the suspect.

In Mulanje in the area of Traditional Authority Chikumbu, Apostle Samuel Nthache is a wanted man after he allegedly defiled and impregnated a 13-year-old girl who he cared for in his house

This girl we are calling Joana is seven-months pregnant after defilement. The man of God is on the run and police officers are still hunting for him.

“He grabbed me and dragged me to the bedroom where he started undressing me. When I tried to shout for help, he closed my mouth and defiled me,” explained the girl who seemed depressed.

Parents of the victims who feel dejected find this miscarriage of justice.

“We are poor and there is nothing we can do. He only spent a few days in police custody then he was released on bail. I am worried he might harm my child again since he is claiming she is lying,” said Gertrude mother.

While Rose's mother said: “My wish is for justice to prevail. The case is taking too long in the court. We live in the same village with the suspect. My child is being accused of making false allegations, that she is after his money.”

On his part Marjorie’s father blames the teachers led by the head teacher of Ngowo, Amos Bokosi and chairperson of the school committee, Peter Chigwata for trying to force them in vain to drop the case.

“Teachers, school committee members and chiefs have been pressuring us to drop the case but I refused their bribes. They even mocked me that I will lose the case because I don’t have money to fight in court,” explained the father.

In the first quarter of this year, National Police statistics indicated a 50 percent drop in rape cases and a seven percent decrease in defilement as 35 cases of rape were recorded in 2024 against 70 cases in 2023 and 344 defilement cases recorded in 2024 against 371 in 2023.

Educationist, Dr. Limbani Nsapato, recommends provision of psychological support to the affected victim-girls and speedy carriage of justice in the courts.

“There is a need to fast track the justice process. Further to it, the children need to be provided with psychological support and ensure they get back to school," he said.

Mphatso Nkuonera speaks for the ministry of education. He feels the answer lies in collaboration to protect girls from sexual abuse at school and in communities saying they do not tolerate any forms of abuse. He said all perpetrators have to face the law.

Malawi Human Rights Commission (MHRC) Commissioner Teresa Ndanga is a member of the Child Rights Committee of MHRC.

She acknowledges the legal entitlement of rape and defilement suspects to bail but observes glaring gaps in provision of social protection of sexually abused girls and women.

Ndanga says victims are left to face the world alone when they should have been offered physical and psychological support in safer places.

For child-rights activist, Memory Chisenga, says there is a need to ensure that defilement victims are back in school and protected from further trauma. She is also pushing for the prosecution and imprisonment of the culprits.

Every-time a sexually abused girl catches sight of her assailant, says mental health expert Eric Umar, she is thrown back to the experience triggering emotional and psychological reactions.

Charles Masulani is another mental health expert and heads St. John of God hospital.

Masulani argues that there are chances a suspect could defile the victim again especially where chances of conviction are high or they may use this time to negotiate their way out of the case.

For health rights activist Dorothy Ng'oma, that is a dangerous situation as the girls begin to think she is being punished again by seeing the abuser around. She says, it could trigger suicide thoughts.

Yes, the right to bail is a constitutional provision in Malawi, but so too is protection of children. Victims of defilement are girl-children. Obviously, their protection should supersede that of sexual predators.

Perpetrators of sexual assault on girls, even suspects, should never be allowed anywhere near children.

Allowing defilement suspects back in communities where they allegedly committed the crimes is torture. A nation torturing its traumatized baby girls in the name of constitutionalism.

(Written by Chikondi Mphande and Christopher Sande)