Police create additional regions
Malawi Police Service (MPS) is considering increasing its regional headquarters from the current four to six as part of its functional review process.
When finalised, the process will see the splitting of Central and Southern regional police headquarters into Central West and Central East and South West and South East police headquarters, respectively, according to a concept document The Nation has seen.
Currently, the police service has four regional headquarters, notably Northern, Central, Southern and Eastern.
While confirming the development, National Police spokesperson James Kadadzera was non-committal in an interview on Friday, insisting it was too early to start commenting on the matter.
He said: “It is not yet for public consumption as such it will be premature for me to start discussing about it. The issue is currently at discussion stage and forms part of the functional review the police service is currently undergoing.”
The concept document The Nation has seen shows that the Central East police region will have Kasungu, Nkhunga in Nkhotakota, Ntchisi, Salima, Mponela, Dowa and Nkhotakota while the Central West will comprise Lilongwe, Kawale, Lingadzi, Kanengo, Mchinji, Dedza and Ntcheu police stations.
On the other hand, the South West police headquarters will include Blantyre, Soche, Ndirande, Chilomoni, Limbe, Bangwe, Chileka, Mwanza and Neno with the following stations Mulanje, Thyolo, Luchenza, Nsanje, Chikwawa, Phalombe and Chiradzulu forming the South East police region.
But a source at National Police Headquarters told The Nation that MPS is under pressure to create new regional offices to accommodate the commissioners whose number has swelled from four to eight in recent years.
