LILONGWE (MaraviPost) — There will no longer be a repeat of the “shoot to kill policy” which mandated members of the Malawi Police Service (MPS) to shoot to death or suspected dangerous criminals in the country during the late Bingu wa Mutharika regime, Malawi Police have said.
Deputy Inspector General of Police (responsible for operations) Paul Chinyama said “country cannot invoke such kind of a policy now because it is not constitutional.”
At the apex of his unpopularity, Bingu – elder brother to incumbent Pres Peter Mutharika – had instructed the police to shoot to death all his critics.
Over the past few days, people have been calling for the enforcement of the “policy” considering the alarming levels of crime in the country. For instance, on Saturday robbers shot Blantyre based business magnate Fernando Da Silva, a building contractor, and got away with over K2 million cash.
But Kanyama, who was in company of his boss, said in a press briefing in Malawi’s capital Lilongwe that the enforcement would be impossible.
“We’ve never had a shoot to kill policy in the country,” said Kanyama. “It was simply a pronouncement made by the late head of state Bingu wa Mutharika that police would should to kill all suspected criminals.”