IG claims PP didn’t support police

• Msonda says IG dragging office into politics

New Inspector General (IG) of Police Paul Kanyama has described the two-year tenure of former president Joyce Banda and her People’s Party (PP) as “hell for the police”.

In his speech at the New Year and Christmas Ball for junior police officers at the Malawi Police Service (MPS) headquarters in Lilongwe, Kanyama also claimed that unnamed politicians in the current administration are interfering with his work by, among others, ordering his office to promote certain police officers.

Kanyama said police were poorly equipped during Banda’s rule.

“Let us thank the President [Peter Mutharika] for supporting us, the last two years were hell for police. We were not supported in our work,” he said.

Reacting to Kanyama’s sentiments in an interview on Monday, PP spokesperson Ken Msonda said it was puzzling to hear the IG`s comments which he said have dragged the office in political talk.

Said Msonda: “Government do not change and political parties are not government. If he says government did not help enough, why did he not speak out then? We do not want to belabour ourselves to dwell on such cheap talk, but we are puzzled that those words came from such an office.”

Kanyama said to ensure efficiency and dispel fears of favouritism and nepotism, the new police administration plans to revert to the old system of an officer promotion board where every officer would be interviewed.

During the party, Kanyama conceded the public’s trust in police was at its lowest ebb and attacked police officers, both senior and junior, who are involved in corruption.

Speaking in an interview later, Kanyama moved to clarify his words on political interference, saying his speech was aimed at encouraging officers to work hard and not rely on political connections to get jobs.

Earlier, the junior officers through a representative complained about several nagging challenges facing low-ranked officers, chief among them, poor housing and conditions of services which Kanyama assured the officers government and the MPS were seriously looking into.