KCN joins protest, 17 arrested

Protests over the fees hike in the University of Malawi (Unima) spilled over to a third constituent college, Kamuzu College of Nursing (KCN) where 17 students were collectively arrested at the Blantyre and Lilongwe campuses.

In Lilongwe, armed police officers fired tear gas canisters to disperse KCN students who had blocked the road connecting Mchesi and Old Town to Kamuzu Central Hospital (KCH) and the college, obstructing motorists using the road.

Eleven students were arrested at KCN’s Lilongwe Campus whereas six were picked at the Blantyre Campus which is adjacent to Queen Elizxabeth Central Hospital (QECH) which, like KCH, is a referral hospital.

At the Lilongwe Campus, police were seen firing tear gas in the student hostels in an apparent reaction to stones pelted at them by the angry students.

Central Region Police spokesperson Ramsy Mushani confirmed about the arrest of 11 students at KCN Lilongwe Campus.

He said the students have been charged with conduct likely to cause breach of peace and are expected to appear before court “as soon as the police are done with investigations”.

KCN Students Union vice-president Iron Kathonyeza said the demonstrations took the college and the union unawares as there was no alert that the students were going to protest, a situation which put the police in an awkward situation as to whether treat the situation as a demo or just an act of violence by the students.

The students are demanding that the raise of the fees should be reasonable, suggesting that those who pay K55 000 should not have their fees raised beyond K100 000 whereas those paying K275 000 should not have their fees raised beyond K300 000.

KCH spokesperson Mabel Chinkhata said that the activity at KCN did not affect operations at the hospital in any way.

In Blantyre, police arrested six KCN students for misconduct during their demonstrations outside QECH.

The students, who were arrested during lunch hour as they were protesting, blocked motorists from getting into QECH premises.

KCN Students Union president Gift Banda said the police had arrested nine people, including six students, one nurse and the passers-by who were going into the hospital premises.

Banda and other student leaders made their way to Blantyre City Council (BCC) where they failed to leave their petition because the council’s chief executive officer (CEO) Alfred Chanza was in Lilongwe.

She said: “The petition we want to present is asking the President [Peter Mutharika] who is the chancellor for Unima to address the situation so that both the students and government can have some type of mutual ground.”

The six KCN Blantyre Campus students were taken to the High Court where they were granted bail later in the day.

The arrest of the KCN students comes after 15 Polytechnic students were arrested over demonstrations that took place on Friday and were also given bail yesterday.

Students at Chancellor College in Zomba were the first to protest the fee hike after Unima Council put its foot down on the issue after meeting Unima Students Union (Umsu) leadership.

Unima has four constituent colleges— Chanco, the Polytechnic, KCN and College of Medicine (CoM).