In February this year, Parliament amended Section 14 of the Marriage, Divorce and Family Relations Act of 2015 which put the age of marriage at 18, ending the conflict with Section 23 of the same law which put the age of a child at 16.

Senior Chief Kachindamoto of Dedza has expressed her excitement on the development saying the law will help to keep children in school.

“For me and my people, we are very happy with this development, we will now do our job freely to make sure that children are in school,” said Kachindamoto.

She also commended parliamentarians for passing the bill in the National Assembly.

Kachindamoto added that educating children is educating the nation as they are the ones to drive the future development policies saying, among others, once these children are educated they can be instrumental on socio-economic development.

In his remarks, Massel Chisi Chairperson for Men for Gender Equality Now said communities need to be educated on the new Law.

“We are now in the right direction. Now there will be legal backing to protect a child in the society. We commend the President for that,” he said.

The amendments set a constitutional framework for the protection of all children from early marriage and harmonise legal instruments prohibiting child marriage.

And following the passing of the Constitution (amendment) bill, Malawi becomes in compliance with the African Charter and United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child which provides that a child is aged 18 and below and must be accorded all the protection by the State and its instruments.