By Tiyese Monjeza
Government has bailed out Malawi Prison Service (MPS) with K1.5 billion for purchasing food up to April next year, as a means to contain a raging crisis in the correctional facilities.
MPS spokesperson Chimwemwe Shaba said the funds will cater for purchasing maize, beans and other food items. He said they got the funds from Treasury after they made a request to the Ministry of Finance to be considered with K1.5 billion during the budget midyear review.
“The food situation has now improved in our prisons, where we were facing a food crisis. We were not able to procure maize from suppliers who were demanding huge sums of money for the staple grain due to inflation,” Shaba said.
He added that MPS has an agreement with the Ministry of Agriculture, where the institution will be buying maize from Agricultural Development and Marketing Cooperation (Admarc).
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“By buying maize from Admarc, it will save us from challenges we were having when purchasing maize from suppliers who would at times supply the maize late or refuse to supply due to outstanding payments,” Shaba said.
Zomba Central Prison officer in charge Harrings Nyalubwe said the facility has been allocated 2,095 (50 kilogrammes (kg) bags of maize which will see them through to the next financial year which will begin on April 1.
“The situation was really bad, as we did not have adequate maize. With the fresh allocation, we have been heavily relieved,” Nyalubwe said.
The food crisis in Malawi’s prisons has been an issue of concern to stakeholders such as the Centre for Human Rights Education, Advice and Assistance (Chreaa), which has been suggesting that decongesting the facilities would partly ease the problem.
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In recent months, suppliers have reportedly been terminating contracts with prisons due to rising food prices.
Chreaa, which fights for the rights of prisoners, recently noted that at the time the suppliers were signing contracts with MPS, a 50kg bag of maize was pegged at around K15,000, before prices shot up exponentially.
