Headteacher Commits Suicide in Nkhotakota Over Pregnancy Scandal

By Alfred Mthandizi

Nkhotakota head teacher, based at Kaweluwelu Primary School has committed suicide after impregnating a 14-year-old girl, police have confirmed.

The headteacher, identified as Darwin Nkhoma, took his life following revelations that a fourteen-year girl, whom he was having sexual relations with, was now pregnant with his child. Malawi laws prohibits any form of canal knowledge with underaged persons.

Confirming the development, Khunga Police publicist Ignatius Esau said is true that a wife and her ten children in Nkhotakota have been rendered helpless after their only breadwinner Darwin Nkhoma committed suicide over a pregnancy scandal.

Twenty-three years ago, the Malawi government recruited Mr. Darwin Nkhoma as a primary school teacher. Over the years, Mr. Nkhoma rose through the ranks and became a headteacher.

Nine years ago, he was posted to Kaweluwelu primary school and during his stay at the school, he fell in love with a 14yr old girl whom he later impregnated (now three months pregnant according to hospital documents). The news spread around the area which later attracted the attention of activists who advocate for the advancement of girl-child education.

Esau said “On the morning of July 27, 2018 the activists visited the girl who later led them to the school where the actual ‘act’ took place. Sensing danger that the activists might later report the matter to police, the 49-year-old headteacher in the middle of the night told his wife that he was to attend to goats outside their house but he never returned.”

Two days later, Nkhoma who hails from Kamphandika village in the area of Traditional Authority Kafuzila in the district was found hanging dead in a nearby forest and a postmortem exam determined that suffocation was the major cause of the deceased’s death.