The controversial same sex case has been moved to June 5th and 6th, 2023 to allow more parties to join the case.

A victory in their bid will effectively legalise same sex marriages and lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender, and intersex (LGBTI) activities in the country.

Two applicants, Dutch national Wim Akster and transgender woman, Jana Gonani want the court to declare Malawi's homosexuality laws unconstitutional.

Akster is being accused of sodomizing six boys and trafficking three girls who were under a bursary scheme he was managing at Timotheos Foundation.

Child rights activist, Memory Chisenga and other Civil Society Organizations including People Serving Girls at Risk and Eye of the Child want Akster still prosecuted for violation of children's rights through his conduct.

"With the twist and turns the case has taken, it has taken the face of homosexuality. We want Malawian to know this is a case of child abuse, he used his power at a Christian organization. Him ganging up with the transgender woman is trying to hide under that banner.

"He is a child abuser. The court should not overshadow that. Our boys are traumatized, robbed of their innocence," Chisenga said.

She demanded that justice should prevail irrespective of the power and financial status of the accused. "He is trying to make it as there was consensual sex"

She further decried the slow pace of the case but hoped the courts would ensure smooth running of the proceedings.

Sections 153 and 156 of the Penal Code currently outlaw these acts.

The accused moved the Constitutional Court to declare the two pieces of legislation unconstitutional; arguing they violate their right to privacy, dignity, among others.

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Major religious groups mantain homosexuality is a sin before God and will promote societal moral decay if legalized.

An Afrobarometer survey conducted in 2014 has shown that over 90 percent of Malawians are opposed to having a homosexual as a neighbor. This suggests an over whelming negative attitude towards homosexuality in Malawi.

The Malawian government is viewed as being caught between trying to appease Western donors, upon whose aid the Malawian economy heavily depends, and responding to conservative anti-homosexuality lobbies within Malawi. 

In 2010, former president, late Bingu Wa Mutharika was forced to pardon a gay couple from a 14-year prison term after a meeting with the then United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon.