A powerful politician–allegedly–took her three children away from her home while she was battling for life in hospital. An orphanage solicited a death certificate declaring her dead and gave her children up for adoption. But her death certificate was fake. She neither died nor consented to the theft of her children.
JULIUS MBEŴE and MILIMO CHITSULO
Due to a court order protecting victims and witnesses in a human trafficking case, we won’t mention some of the people named in this investigation. Instead, we will use aliases for some of the victims who are subject to a court protection order in our possession. Unless where stated, the rest of the names are real.
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Agness (her real name has been changed to protect her) was born forty-three years ago at Chilimba Village in Mulanje District in abject poverty. Like the majority of rural Malawians, she was happy and a farmer. She bore three children.
She was vulnerable.
It’s her alleged death, and that of her ex-husband, that is in dispute. Staged by people interested in sending her children into the hands of a wealthy American couple, she and her ex-husband from whom she was separated, were declared dead in 2016.
She was admitted to a hospital for an illness. When she came back home, her three children were gone. The three —all of whom we are not naming—were declared orphans.
“When I was discharged, I returned home to find that my children were no longer there.
“My grandmother told me that they had been taken to Good Samaritan Children’s Home by Mrs. Patricia Kaliati,” Agness told PIJ in an interview.
Initially discouraged by her grandmother and uncle from visiting the children at the orphanage, Agness forced her way to the Good Samaritan Children’s Home one day and saw her children, reportedly in good health.
“I was relieved to see them, but little did I know what would follow,” she said.
What would follow is a story of agony, the theft of her children, one by one, by people who claim to protect the most vulnerable but whom evidence of this investigation suggests are pocketing money, selling the very vulnerable.
Documents reviewed by PIJ, among other things, two death certificates produced by the Registrar General’s office, a payment agreement with adoption agents, court orders, statements to police by witnesses, plus interviews with the victim, lawyers, and other stakeholders, suggest Agness is a victim of human trafficking by agents financially gaining from unethical international adoption.
The investigation suggests several players—possibly agents, lawyers, court officials, officials from the Registrar General, and staff members at the orphanage—committed a range of crimes during this human trafficking case, including forgery, altering false documents, giving false evidence, corruption, and abuse of office. Such crimes carry lengthy prison sentences.
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The documents also include Agness’ statement, which mentions the former Minister of Gender, Community Development & Social Welfare, Patricia Kaliati’s involvement, and the role of the Good Samaritan Children’s Home in the case, among other things.
PIJ also reviewed a payment agreement in which the adoptive parent paid $24,120 (approximately 42 million kwacha) to facilitate the adoption.
A PIJ investigation in 2023 exposed how illegal adoptions were a booming industry, with one adoption costing would-be parents as much as $40,000 in fees, fueling unethical practices by lawyers, agents, and orphanages seeking to cash in on the trade.
At the centre of the allegations is Klaus Chikufenji, a Blantyre-based businessperson and aspirant for parliamentary office already answering charges on allegations of human trafficking.
Also named in the investigation is former Minister of Gender, Community Development & Social Welfare, Patrica Kaliati, who reportedly had close ties with the Good Samaritan Children’s Home. She allegedly met some of the adoptive parents, including the family at the centre of this investigation, before the adoption.
(Kaliati did not respond to PIJ's questions on the matter. Several efforts to speak to her about her involvement in the case proved futile.)
Among the documents sourced by the PIJ in the investigation includes a police statement submitted to local police on September 6, 2024, by Priscilla Garner, an American woman who adopted the children.
PIJ also sourced the purported death certificates of both the children’s mother and father, legal documents under the Births and Deaths Registration Act.
The purported death certificate for the mother claims she passed away on July 20, 2016, at Mulanje District Hospital due to malaria. The ex-husband’s certificate claims he died in October 2014.
While PIJ did not interview the ex-husband, various sources interviewed in this investigation confirmed he is alive.
A close look at the certificate, however, reveals some discrepancies. Agness, for example, is cited to have died aged 28 in 2016. However, in a police statement, she gave last year, her age was recorded as 43.
The National Registration Bureau, which is responsible for the production of death certificates, through a spokesperson, said it never produced the purported death certificate.
"The NRB process death registration process is watertight and to process a fraudulent Death Certificate is extremely difficult. To register any death, especially from the community, NRB engages an informant at length to ascertain that indeed a death occurred. It also ensures that either the Village Head or Religious Leader has stamped and signed the form. As regards death in health facilities, the initial processes are done in the presence of the dead body," spokesperson Norman Fulatira told PIJ.
He said, that after investigations, the NRB did not find the certificate in its system.
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Priscilla Garner’s relationship with Good Samaritan began in September 2016, when she accompanied Thandiwe Chikufenji, a manager at Good Samaritan Ministries on a trip to Mulanje. (Thandiwe Chikufenji, the President and Director of the Good Samaritan did not respond to PIJ questions on the matter.)
According to her statement to investigators, the trip aimed to assess five children for placement at the Good Samaritan’s orphanage.
In October 2016, She saw a photo of Agness’ male child on a Facebook page titled “Miracles for Malawi,” where children in need of sponsors were shown and began the process of adopting the child. The adoption was completed in January 2020, according to her statement to police.
Shortly after, Garner began the process of adopting Agness’ second child. In her mind, she says, she was rescuing children in dire situations, found in a dilapidated home with no roof or doors. Later, she attempted to adopt the eldest of the children, aged 16 but failed due to legal factors. She would then attempt to register her as a foster child, again failing in that endeavor, before resorting to just sending her to school in the United States where she could be close to her siblings.
Garner says she had no clue, the mother of the children was alive but during the adoption process, the U.S. Embassy in Lilongwe raised red flags on the validity of the death certificates of the parents of the children, according to the police statement.
Those certificates, she told police, were obtained by Klaus Chikufenji, the brother of the Director of Good Samaritan Orphanage, where the children were living before the adoption.
Overnight, Chikufenji produced the documents at a cost of MK35,000, Garner told investigators.
“I don't know how he was able to obtain the information and who he dealt with to get it so quickly, but I was completely unaware of how such documents are produced here in Malawi, as it was also done for the three other adoptive families who were also with us,” she said.
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Chikufenji’s alleged involvement in the securing of the documents is an interesting development.
In May last year, police arrested Chikufenji, for allegedly conspiring with Immigration officers to facilitate the issuance of passports for minors intended for adoption abroad, according to The Sunday Times. Allegedly, he solicited $1 100 from an American, Jean Tiroa, claiming he would process a passport for a minor Tiroa wanted to adopt from Malawi.
Around the same period, April 2024, Chikufenji also allegedly, obtained 1.2 million kwacha from Ricardo Noguera Magalhaes to obtain another passport for another minor Magalhaes wanted to adopt. Both cases are yet to be concluded in court, leaving Chikufenji free to currently campaign for political office and run a string of businesses.