Community claim police ‘abuse’ at estate

Some women at Longwe Village around Kawalazi Tea Estate in Nkhata Bay have alleged that some police officers harassed and abused them during a raid.

Homeland Security Minister Jean Sendeza, who visited the place on Thursday last week, and National Police spokesperson Peter Kalaya confirmed the police raid.

Kalaya has since dismissed the accusations against police as baseless.

According to Kalaya, the raid was based on intelligence reports that some men around the village cut down about 250 macadamia trees belonging to the estate because of land wrangles.

One of the alleged victims, Charity Nkhata, claimed in an interview last Sunday that police in three vehicles raided the area in search of people alleged to have cut the macadamia trees.

“They broke into my room and found me naked and asked for my husband.

“They were seven and one of them pointed a gun at me while others were searching everywhere.

“I told them my husband, Zakeyo Longwe, has been in Rumphi since January because he is sick.

“After searching everywhere, some started touching me. They left us after firing tear gas. I had two children, a five-year-old and three-year-old.”

The children, according to Nkhata, choked and life has not been the same for her.

“Our grandfathers were buried here; the estate found us and now it claims that this is their land? My husband can’t even do anything, and they come to do that to us?

“In March, they cut down all my banana plantations. In 2017, they demolished school blocks we erected and now, our children can’t go to Chisala Primary School because it is too far,” she says.

Her neighbour Sankhani Longwe, who claims to be one of the police targets, says he escaped but his wife bore all the torture.

He claims: “After noticing that they were coming, I escaped. They broke my door, entered my bedroom and found my wife naked.

“They searched everywhere and started touching her. She asked them what they would find on her body because they kept on touching even her private parts.

“Some were outside and they told those inside to leave, but they didn’t. My wife shouted that the police wanted to rape her, that is the time they ran away, firing teargas in the house, and those outside shot in the air.”

A witness, Terina Banda, claims that when she heard gunshots and encountered tear gas, she came out of her house, questioning the police on their conduct but she was allegedly kicked in the face,” she said.

Gogo Dorica Chirwa, 87, who could not hold her tears during the interview, claims she was physically assaulted.

She alleged the police pushed her down when she confronted them.

Sendeza said she came to the area to bring peace among the warring factions.

She, however, said she was ignorant of the alleged police abuse.

Said Sendeza: “I was in Mzuzu where I had a meeting with the police and Kawalazi management team.

“I assigned the two parties to meet the chief so that everyone should know their boundaries. My only role is to bring peace and order, because I believe in dialogue and not force.

“I am not aware of any abuse, I can only talk about the visit and discussions I had with the police and the estate managers.”

On his part, Kalaya said it was people who pelted the police with stones; hence, the decision to fire bullets in the air and tear gas to quell the situation.

He said: “We did not abuse anyone; those are baseless accusations. They just want to buy sympathy from the public.”

Gortej Singh Nain, the estate managing director, was not available for comment as he was reportedly on leave, but he earlier urged government to help solve the matter.

The bone of contention is that government issued two separate maps for the area. While the first showed the estate encroached into people’s land, the second one showed people encroached into the estate’s land, leading to a stalemate.