Court to Assess Damages for woman Wrongly Put on ART

Lawyer representing an HIV negative woman in Mulanje who was erroneously put on Anti-Retroviral Therapy (ART) for three years has applied to the high court to assess damages which the woman suffered.

Earlier, the woman, Agnes Jumbe, demanded a compensation of K30 million from government.

Counsel William Chiwaya said that the decision has been arrived at after noticing that state is reluctant to come up with its proposal of how much it will manage to compensate the woman.

The notice of assessment from the Registrar of the High Courtreads “take notice that the High Court of Malawi has set the 5th of August 2019 at 11 O’clock in the afternoon for assessment of damages in this matter.”

It was served to the office of Attorney General on 23rd July, 2019.

The office of AG is yet to comment on the matter.

When the story of Ms. Agnes Jumbe aired on one of the media houses in the country in 2017, counsel Chiwaya moved in and challenged government to compensate her for damages on pain and suffering, humiliation, past, present and future bodily complications and that her husband divorced her.