Thengo Kavinya
Managing Editor, Malawi Medical Journal
E-mail: mmj@kuhes.ac.mw
Same-sex sexual activity is prohibited in Malawi under the Penal Code, which criminalises acts of ‘carnal knowledge against the order of nature’ as well as ‘gross indecency’; proclaiming a maximum penalty of 14 years imprisonment.
Following her independence in 1964, Malawi, formerly Nyasaland, inherited former colonial master Britain’s English criminal law which was imposed upon the then Protectorate in 1930. For the past six decades, Malawi has thus retained
the law criminalising same-sex sexual activity.