The Irish Rule of Law International through Mwai Wosinthika Programme has trained police officers from Lilongwe Police Station and others from 10 urban police posts and units in child diversion referral programme.

The initiative seeks to equip police officers with knowledge on how children under 18 who are in conflict with the law through diversion process, which entails channelling away child cases from the normal justice system.

Speaking yesterday during the training at Central West Region Police in Lilongwe, Mwai Wosinthika Programme officer Everson Mngenje said his organisation runs programmes targeting children who have gone through the diversion process to reform them.

A cross-section of the participants

“We focus on why the child committed the offence, counselling and other life transformation programmes,” he said.

Mngenje, however, said some diverted children are not fully accepted back in the community due to knowledge gap.

One of the facilitators, Kingsley Pamanda, who is also Central West Region Police child protection officer, reminded participants that according to laws of Malawi, a child below 10 is not criminally responsible.

He said under no circumstances should they be arrested or detained if they are in conflict with the law. 

“Any child under 18 can be considered for diversion if the case they are answering is not listed in the fourth schedule of Child Care, Protection and Justice Act of 2010, which includes rape, defilement and murder, among others,” said Pamanda. 

He said besides protecting children from undesirable conditions, diversion process saves time and resources in prosecuting child offenders through the normal justice system.

Lilongwe Police station officer Eunice Mwankili said the training was vital for the law enforcers to make informed decisions.

She asked the officers to take advantage of the initiative for them to make better and legally accepted decisions when handling cases involving children.

During a visit to  Mpemba Reformatory Centre in Blantyre last year, Minister of Gender, Community Development and Social Welfare Patricia Kaliati said goverment wanted to remove street children to protect them.

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