Police cautions sluggish child protection officers

The Malawi Police Service (MPS) has cautioned police officers commissioned to handle child protection and gender-based violence (GBV) matters to be vigilant and produce expected outcomes.

This comes amid revelations that child defilement cases in the country have risen by seven percent this year compared to 2016 and 2017.

Police Deputy Inspector General responsible for Administration (DIG-A) John Nyondo made the remarks in Lilongwe on Monday during the opening of a two-week training of trainers in child protection and GBV for police officers.

He said: “This training has come at the right time when Malawi has registered a seven percent increase in defilement cases this year as compared to 2016 and 2017. Our hope is that after these two weeks, we will see a change.”

Eye of the Child executive director Maxwell Matewere has since hailed the police for taking the step to train its officers.

“This is good news for us because it means we will now be working with law enforcers who have extra knowledge and expertise,” said Matewere, whose organisation looks into child rights and welfare.

The training is being facilitated by experts from Scottish Police College which offers leadership training and development coaching.

The institution’s business development manager Gordon Thomson said the participants will get a package of high standards currently in use by different countries.

“We have offered similar training in other countries and things are working there so Malawi officers will be among the leading child protection officers once the training is completed,” he said.

The training has brought together 20 participants from all police stations in the country.