By Richard Kayenda
Church and Society of the CCAP Synod of Livingstonia has called upon Malawi Police Service (MPS) and the Prison Services (PS) in the country to peacefully resolve their feud, arguing bad blood between the two security institutions is recipe for security lapses in Malawi.
Speaking to media on Monday, Church and Society Executive Director, Moses Mkandawire, said for the sake of security in the country, the two institutions have to always work to together as they have done in the past and not turning into foes over a resolvable matter.
“We need to bring the trust between the two security institutions. They have worked together for quite sometimes and there is no way each institution can work on their own. So, what we would want to do is basically to engage both institutions but also with the support of other civil society institutions. And it is a concern for us that we don’t want to this ensure that the conflict turns into what we call violent conflict between the two institutions. This process is urgently needed to be done,” Mkandawire said.
Mkandawire’s remarks come after the two institutions physically confronted each other last week when the Police went to quell the situation as the junior officers at the Prison Service department downed their tools in a bid to demand the government to promote them but also to provide the department with funds to procure Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) and to be used as their risk allowances as has been the case with the Malawi Police Service, the Department of Immigration and Citizenship Services and the Malawi Defense Force (MDF).
As of Friday last week, all the junior officers who were boycotting duties got promoted, a development which left so many a Malawian wondering how the Ministry of Homeland Security under which the Prison Service Department falls, operates.
