Kamuzu College of Nursing students strike over meal allowances

Students of Lilongwe’s Kamuzu College of Nursing (KCN) held a demonstration Wednesday afternoon to show displeasure at not having received their meal allowances for three months.

When Malawi News Agency (Mana) visited the campus amid the commotion later that afternoon and established that the allowances, called ’malswitch,’ had been raised from K40,000 to K50,000 with effect from January this year but not a penny had been given to the students ever since the raise.

“All we want is our money and its arrears because we suspect that members of the administration are embezzling it, otherwise why would other colleges have received their allowances and not us,” reasoned one student who further disclosed that the excuse given to them by the administration was lack of funding.

Efforts to get clarification from the college’s administration proved futile as the members of administration who were then at the scene said they were too busy to comment.

Neither damage of property nor any arrests had been made when we went to press around 5.00 pm, but the atmosphere had calmed down following a Rapid Response team of the Malawi Police Service who had stormed the campus to restore order