Police report 24% rise in defilement cases
Malawi Police Service (MPS) says defilement cases have increased by 24.4 percent in the Central Region, a development that is disheartening.
Speaking during Christmas and New Year party on Tuesday night in Lilongwe, Central Region Commissioner of Police George Kainja said defilement cases have increased from 357 cases in 2014 to 444 in 2015.
He said: “This 24.4 percent increase in defilement cases means that our girl child is not safe. Let us all fight this vice by, among other things, not covering up such crimes when they occur as has been the case oftentimes.”
Gender activist Emma Kaliya, commenting on the revelation in a telephone interview on Thursday, attributed the increase to diversity of culture in the country and exposure to films that promote abuse of girls.
She said: “Every day we are having a different nation in terms of people’s behaviours as people copy ways of living from foreign cultures. People are also learning new bad practices everyday through films which they watch. As a result they think it is okay to defile a girl child. We should change our mindset on a girl child and let us join hands to protect her.”
Kaliya also said defilement cases are increasing because many people are reporting such cases to police unlike in the past when people were hiding such cases.
On a positive note, Kainja said MPS in the Central Region recorded a decrease the criminal cases as they have recorded 18 430 cases as compared to 19 304 cases in 2014. This represents a decrease of 4.5 percent.
He encouraged police officers to work hard in 2016 to fight against crime. He extended this plea to the public to join hands with the police to ensure that the region is crime-free.
