Malawi Police Service yesterday came under fire from some delegates to the Public Affairs Committee (PAC) Sixth All-Inclusive Stakeholders Conference who accused the law enforcers of failing the nation in handling political violence.
The delegates, mostly representatives of civil society organisations (CSOs) and opposition parties, also faulted the police for allegedly moving to curtail the right to demonstrate and freedom of assembly. Further, the cops were accused of employing double standards, especially where cases of violence are linked to the governing party.
But, reacting to the concerns expressed amid emotions, a calm Inspector General (IG) of Police Merlyne Yolamu told the conference in Blantyre that police have done their best and have arrested some suspects while others were convicted.
Representatives of Human Rights Defenders Coalition (HRDC), Centre for Democracy and Economic Development Initiatives (Cdedi), Political Science Association (PSA), Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and Alliance for Democracy (Aford) highlighted that police execute their duties in unprofessional manner when handling cases of political violence, leading to loss of public trust.
In his submission, HRDC chairperson Gift Trapence challenged the IG to provide statistics on the number of political violence cases police recorded since 2024 and how many culprits arrested.
He said: “We were expecting madam IG and your team to give us such details, including how many were arrested and taken to court. Malawians need such information, otherwise, police continue to be seen as a least trusted agency in the country.”
Taking his turn, Cdedi executive director Sylvester Namiwa accused the police chief of providing false information regarding perpetrators of political violence and those arrested for the same.
He asked the IG to provide details of the people arrested for allegedly hacking some demonstrators with pangas in Lilongwe.
Said Namiwa: “If you will not give us details of the court that is hearing the case involving protesters who were hacked by thugs at Lilongwe Community Ground and if you don’t disclose those who deflated tyres of vehicles belonging to opposition legislators at Parliament, you should accept that you have failed and you must step down. You are a threat to the peace and stability of this country.”
He said the police were quick to arrest suspected perpetrators of violence in other regions, but drag feet when such cases happen in the Central Region, deemed as the stronghold of the governing Malawi Congress Party (MCP).
DPP director of women Mary Navicha queried why police take time to conclude investigations in political violence-related cases perceived to be perpetrated by the governing party.
On the other hand, MCP publicity secretary Jessie Kabwila also asked police to fully investigate cases of political violence and their causes.
“What is good for A should not be bad for B. The pain that people of Mbowe [filling station in Lilongwe] suffered, is the same pain I suffered at Nsanama [in Machinga],” she said, referring to an incident where she and her entourage were attacked.
In response, Yolamu said police investigated almost all the political violence-related cases and that some people were arrested and convicted.
However, she declined to reveal names of those arrested, saying it would jeopardise investigations. The police chief could also not disclose the courts that heard the cases.
“Most of the cases are being perpetrated towards the ruling party. On trust, I would say police is not trusted because of its constant interaction with the general public,” said Yolamu.
Earlier, Deputy Commissioner of Police Levison Mangani said Malawi Police has a shortfall of 3 257 officers to properly manage this year’s general election.
Making a presentation on police preparedness, he said the security agency needs 22 553 police officers, but currently it has about 19 296 officers.
“But this is not a cause of worry because we also work with other sister security agencies such as the Immigration Department and Malawi Defence Force,” said Mangani.
The PAC Sixth All-Inclusive Stakeholders Conference, which started on Tuesday, attracted delegates from all sectors and was held under the theme ‘Securing consensus on transparent and accountable electoral governance through dialogue’.
On the first day of the conference, discussions centred on the use of election management devices in the September 16 2025 General Election as some delegates, including representatives of opposition political parties insisted that MEC should use the manual transmission of results.
MEC contracted Smartmatic, an information technology (IT) company in 2024 to supply devices and software for managing the election, which attracted resistance amongst some Malawians including opposition political parties.
