Paving the road to crime-free Malawi

The button stick was once a symbol of police power; it was a somewhat lethal stick that stole the innocence of anyone it touched.

Today, the winds of time seem to have washed it clean of that reputation as it, somehow, seems to largely serve as a mere relic of past grandeur.

Not that it [button stick] has been shaped by the winds of time; far from it. It has largely been shaped by reforms that have taken place in the Malawi Police Service (MPS).

The service has undergone transformation since its establishment on October 5 1921, when it was called Nyasaland Police Force (NPF), with its head offices in Zomba.

The first police stations were established in Zomba, Blantyre, Mulanje and Mangochi, marking the formal journey of law enforcement in Malawi.

Today, structures that used to serve as NPF headquarters are part of Police College in Zomba.

MPS indicates that a number of things, ranging from the position of the police chief, changed.

For instance, its head was initially called Chief Commissioner (CC) before the title changed to Inspector General (IG).

In 1966, after Malawi attained independence from Britain, the then prime minister Dr Hastings Kamuzu Banda changed the name from NPF to Malawi Police Force (MPF), making JV Mullin NPF’s last British Chief Commissioner.

And that is how Mac Kamwana, who was appointed by Malawi’s founding president, became the first CC of MPF.

While NPF’s slogan was ‘Police for The People by The People’, which remained in force until 1994, when Bakili Muluzi took over the joystick of power after the multiparty elections of 1994, it changed to ‘Creating a Safe and Secure Malawi’. The new slogan was necessitated by the change in name from MPF to MPS, which the new administration initiated.

According to Muluzi, he changed the name because he wanted law enforcers to be at the service of the citizenry and residents of Malawi, other than bossing over them.

Perhaps the ‘bossing over’ perception came about based on the initial logo of NPF, which was a leopard standing on a hill covered by upright rays of a sunset, and the hitherto forceful use of the button stick.

In MPS’s own words: “The leopard surmounting logo depicted the seriousness of the police in association with the leopard’s characteristics of sniffing from a far and ability to trail and capture its prey with speed and determination without being contented with the achievements of the past.”

Well, today, the leopard, too— like NPF and MPF— is history as the eagle is the new symbol.

But the button stick, with its notorious reputation, has remained.

Red flag

However, cases of crime continue to rise in Malawi and, according to the Global Organised Crime Index, Malawi is ranked 125th out of 193 countries in the world, 40th out of 54 countries in Africa and 6th out of 13 countries in Southern Africa.

This, in short, means a lot needs to be done.

On the resilience score of the Global Organised Crime Index, Malawi is ranked 107th out of 193 countries in the world, 16th out of 54 countries in Africa and 5th out of 13 countries in Southern Africa.

Countries are ranked in terms of people, trade, environment, drugs, cyber and financial crimes.

“Human trafficking is a growing problem in Malawi, with an increasing number of people being exploited for forced labour and sex trafficking…. The country is still vulnerable to trafficking routes due to the lack of border control and its proximity to other countries immersed in wars. Asylum seekers from the war-torn countries of the Great Lakes region and the Horn of Africa enter Malawi with guns and ammunition, resulting in the illegal possession of firearms being a major cause of recent gun violence and gun-related crimes in the country,” the index points out.

It adds that counterfeit goods trade, flora crimes, such as illegal logging and charcoal production, increased cases of people selling drugs such as heroin, sporadic and anecdotal cases of cyber-attacks and financial crimes are rampant in the country.

It cites corruption as one of the factors thwarting anti-crime efforts.

“Although there is an increasing political willingness to tackle organised crime, corruption by different state actors is still ongoing in Malawi. Corruption involving state actors at all levels is a priority concern, especially among justice and security agencies. Officials from all of the main security agencies continue to be implicated in high-profile cases involving the loss of huge amounts of government funds,” it indicates.

Moving in right direction

To stem the tide of crime, law enforcers have been taking positive steps.

Just in October this year, the Legal Aid Bureau (Lab) and Mchinji Police Station officials reaffirmed their commitment to upholding suspects’ rights through legal representation.

Lab Chief Legal Aid Advocate for the Central Region, Bwighane Mwenefumbo, said the bureau feels duty-bound to help those who may not afford private lawyers.

“One of our key mandates is to provide legal services to those who cannot afford to hire private practice lawyers. We are doing that hand-in-hand with the Malawi Police Service so that suspects who are arrested but have no legal counsel can have access to this service,” she said.

Mwenefumbo said police officers would be responsible for granting suspects a chance to make five-minute calls informing bureau officials about their cases, adding that they would be making sure that suspects are briefed on their legal rights by ensuring that they seek Lab services, from Monday to Friday from 7:30am to 4:30pm, by dialing 675 for free.

To do that, the bureau has been providing toll-free phone gadgets to police stations in the country, a development that has elated Mchinji Police Station Officer, Senior Superintendent Charles James Mpezeni.

“We, as police, understand that access to legal services is one of the suspects’ rights. As such, we will ensure that this happens,” he pointed out.

However, perceptions that the rate of crime shows no sign of abating persist.

For instance, this year, the Parliamentary Committee on Defence and Security summoned MPS IG Merlyne Yolamu and Ministry of Homeland Security officials on the issue of perceived security lapse in the country.

In a letter, signed by Jeffrey Mwenyeheli on behalf of the Clerk of Parliament, the committee claimed that break-ins, killings and cases of theft had become the order of the day recently.

The letter has cited four cases, which include the suspected killing of Allan Wittika, who was a Sales Manager for Coca-Cola Beverages Africa, and that of Reserve Bank of Malawi’s Agnes Katengeza.

“Another case involves a young man who was working at Parliament [who] was also found dead and his body [was] found floating in a river,” the letter reads.

The committee also raised concern over reported cases of house-break-ns and theft of cars from car parks of supermarkets and people’s homes.

Committee chairperson Ralph Jooma pointed out that they wanted to get to the bottom of the issue.

“The committee is interested in learning about what institutions are doing to curb the current surge of home break-ins and theft of cars. We are shocked with what has been happening in the country,” Jooma explained.

Days before that, Homeland Security Minister Ken Zikhale Ng’oma had warned social media users that it is against the Electronic Transactions Act to spread fake news, saying the trend was fuelling tension in the country.

“The only thing l want to emphasise is that there is a difference between national security and public security lapse. We expect that in every society people can kill their friends, people can steal and people can damage property for others but that does not mean that it is a national security breakdown because [the] national [breakdown] issue goes with percentage,” Zikhale Ng’oma indicated, before instructing Yolamu to institute investigations into the cases and bring to book those suspected of involvement in the cases.

And Yolamu did act. Her immediate reaction was to ensure that investigations were expedited into the cases, some of which have been referred to the courts.

She also released police trainees to the streets, such that they are now visible everywhere.

And, all of a sudden, sanity seems to have returned to Malawi.

The police chief went a step further, advising female police officers to watch out for men they go out with, saying some of them engage in criminal activities.

“And, then, it becomes difficult to corner them because a police compound is the last place police officers would be thinking about— in terms of hunting criminals,” Yolamu pointed out.

The real challenge, though, is for police officers to be cracking down on criminal elements while, with studied restraint, respecting human rights.