A case for cybercrime legislation in Malawi

• Author: Lewis Chezan Bande
• Date: 01 November 2011
• Pages: 93-113
• DOI: 10.10520/EJC129937
• Published date: 01 November 2011

A CASE FOR CYBERCRIME LEGISLATION IN

MALAWI

Lewis Chezan Bande*

ABSTRACT

In for ma tion and com mu ni ca tion tech nol o gies (ICTs) con tinue to bring

pos i tive change to both de vel oped and de vel op ing coun tries world wide. Ma -

lawi, as is the case with many other coun tries in Af rica, has re cog nised the

need to in cor po rate ICTs in its strat e gies for eco nomic and so cial de vel op -

ment. Un for tu nately, the pos i tive ben e fits de rived from ICTs are

un der mined by those who use ICTs for pur poses of com mit ting crime. The

con ver gence be tween ICTs and crime, or what is com monly re ferred to as

‘cybercrime’, is to day a global se cu rity night mare, af fect ing both de vel oped

and de vel op ing coun tries. Ef forts to deal with the prob lem are be ing made at

in ter na tional, re gional and do mes tic lev els, and calls are be ing made for in -

di vid ual coun tries to en act laws deal ing with cybercrime. Within the

South ern Af ri can De vel op ment Com mu nity, countries have al ready en -

acted such leg is la tion while oth ers are in the pro cess of do ing so. Ma lawi is

one of the few coun tries in the re gion that is yet to ini ti ate ef forts to en act

cybercrime leg is la tion. This ar ti cle makes out a case for Ma lawi to con sider

en act ing such leg is la tion, and to do so as a mat ter of ur gency.

IINTRODUCTION

In for ma tion and com mu ni ca tions tech nol o gies (ICTs) are a crit i cal fea -

ture and the very sym bol of the mod ern ‘in for ma tion and knowl edge so ci ety’,

con nect ing peo ple and places world wide in ways pre vi ously un imag in able.

They have cre ated a global net work of tech nol ogy and peo ple, in so do ing

CYBERCRIME LEGISLATION IN MALAWI 93

LLB Hons (UNIMA), LLM (Stellenbosch); Lec turer in law, Chan cel lor Col lege, Uni ver sity of

Ma lawi; Doc toral can di date, Cath o lic Uni ver sity at Leuven, Belgium.

*

pro vid ing a plat form for both op por tu ni ties and in no va tion.1 They rep re sent a

con ver gence of mod ern in for ma tion, com mu ni ca tion and com put ing tech -

nol o gies, through which crit i cal in for ma tion, ser vices and even goods that

de fine the mod ern age are pro vided and ac cessed. Their transformative ef fects

and po ten tial are too ob vi ous to re quire fur ther em pha sis here. They have,

with out doubt, changed the way mod ern so ci et ies are struc tured and how

mod ern life is lived.

Ma lawi re cog nises the pos i tive ben e fits of ICTs to so cial and eco nomic

de vel op ment of the coun try. The Ma lawi Growth and De vel op ment Strat egy

II (MGDS II) – Ma lawi’s growth and de vel op ment blue print for the pe riod

from 2011 to 2016 – iden ti fies ‘Infrastructural De vel op ment’ as one of the ‘six

broad based the matic ar eas’. ‘In for ma tion and com mu ni ca tions’ is a

sub-theme un der ‘Infrastructural de vel op ment’, and the MGDS II (at 40) has

the fol low ing to say thereof:

In for ma tion is a vi tal re source for all hu man kind through out all stages of life. It

is there fore im por tant that in for ma tion should be made avail able in a form that

is ap pli ca ble and us able, and at the right time. Use of In for ma tion and Com mu -

ni ca tions Tech nol ogy (ICT) en hances the pro duc tion, trans por ta tion and

pro vi sions of in for ma tion to the gen eral pub lic for hu man de vel op ment as well

as for mak ing in formed de ci sions ...

A well-de vel oped in for ma tion and com mu ni ca tion tech nol ogy sys tem is

es sen tial for the de vel op ment of a coun try. Ma lawi’s ICT is still un der de vel -

oped. In this re spect Gov ern ment will im ple ment ICT strat e gies that will

fa cil i tate e-ser vices, in crease pub lic sec tor ef fi ciency and grant cit i zens ac cess

to pub lic ser vices by mak ing them avai l able on line (e-gov ern ment).

These are with out doubt worth while am bi tions for the coun try. And ef -

forts to achieve these am bi tions are al ready un der way. For the past 10 or so

years Ma lawi, to gether with its coun ter parts in sub-Sa ha ran Af rica, has made

tre men dous im prove ments in its ICT ser vices and up take.2 Coun tries in

sub-Sa ha ran Af rica have seen a re mark able im prove ment in ICT in fra struc -

ture, an in creased spread of te le phony ser vices and internet con nec tiv ity, and

the in te gra tion of ICTs into so cial and eco nomic pro cesses. Most im por tantly,

there is a com mit ment in the re gion to in cor po rate ICTs in na tional strat e gies

94 (2011) MLJ VOL.5, ISSUE 2

1P Hunton ‘A rig or ous ap proach to for ma li sing the tech ni cal in ves ti ga tion stages of cybercrime

and crim i nal ity within a UK law en force ment en vi ron ment’ (2011) 7 Dig i tal In ves ti ga tion 105.

2ITU ‘Mea sur ing the in for ma tion so ci ety 2011’, avail able at www.itu.int/ITU-D/ict/pub li ca -

tions/idi/2011/ (ac cessed 27 De cem ber 2011).