A Malawian street vendor who went to court to challenge his arrest over a discriminatory law has called on other countries with similar regulations to abolish them.
Mayeso Gwanda was arrested in 2015 while walking to work, over the outdated and vague offense of being a rogue and vagabond.
He was assisted to contest the charges against him, and in doing so, the High Court declared the law that saw poor people regularly locked up invalid and unconstitutional.
Telling his story to The Comb podcast, he said he fought the case “so that people can be free and not victimized like before”.
“I was so happy that I won the case, and I’m happy that we have no vagabond laws. People are free to move around,” he said.
He says people can now run their businesses and improve their income.
Mr. Gwanda’s case inspired an African Union-backed campaign against a raft of similar laws that are still present in a number of countries.
Known as petty offenses, these laws disproportionately punish poor and vulnerable people whose day-to-day activities often put them in positions that risk arrest.
Read Also: UK government lifts restrictions on fully vaccinated Ghanaians
