Police misconduct, abuses top complaints
Police officers’ misconduct while on duty has dominated the list of complaints which the Independent Complaints Committee (ICC) has received since its inception in August 2021 to date.
In a written response, ICC spokesperson Happy Njalam’mano indicated that since the commission’s establishment, it has received 258 complaints, of which 76 percent (about 196) were about police officers misconduct while on duty.
Complaints against unlawful detention or arrest came second with 50 cases followed by 37 cases of physical assaults. The commission also received 10 complaints against suspects’ deaths while in police custody.
Njalam’mano lamented shortage of resources at the commission, saying it is affecting the handling of the complaints. He added that only 44 cases have been completed.
He said about 166 cases are currently under investigation while 38 cases are pending probes.
Said Njalam’mano: “Financial challenges and human capital are a major setback affecting the complaints handling. To be able to investigate all the cases on time requires adequate funding and human capacity.
“Currently, our staff capacity stands at 25 of which only five are investigators.
These investigators are required to go across the country from a central base in Lilongwe to investigate the complaints.”
Commenting on the matter, security expert Karim Gunthe Mailosi observed that the figures do not reflect the actual misconduct of police officers while on duty.
He noted that most police officers’ misconduct go unreported as majority of Malawians are not conversant with the country’s laws and their rights.
“These police officers’ misconduct happens almost every day, but most of the victims don’t report their issues, maybe because of ignorance. Malawians should be demanding their rights,” said Mailosi, who is also a former police officer.
ICC was established under Section 128 of the Police Act, mainly to investigate complaints by the public against Malawi Police Service or its officers.
In the 2024/25 financial year, government allocated about K741. 2 million of other recurrent transactions (ORT) against the commission’s proposed K900 million budget.
