Experts agree Malawi police overstretched: IG also over stretched powers to ban protests

A governance expert and political an has agreed with Malawi police chief Rodney Jose that the law enforcers are “overstretched” because of poor population ratio between the cops and people.

However, Henry Chingaipe said this is not reason enough for Jose to overstretch his IG powers to ban demonstrations.

“The statement that the police are overstretched does not signify failure on the part of the inspector general of police,” said Chingaipe.

He said there are only 14, 500 police officers against a population of 17 million [18 million] people. The police therefore cannot ably protect lives of people and property during the demonstrations,” said Chingaipe.

However, he said although this might be the case, the police IG has no powers to override the Republican constitution which allows peaceful demonstrations.

Lawyer Khumbo Soko said Jose was wrong to demand that the demonstrations be stopped, saying he was usurping the powers of the Constitution.

Human Rights Defenders Coalition (HRDC) are organising  the demonstrations to force Malawi Electoral Commission (MEC) chairperson Jane Ansah to resign for allegedly residing over a flawed electoral process.

Malawi Congress Party (MCP) and UTM Party leaders have been participating in the protest.