Salima District Council has launched a K195 million project to construct a police unit at Chagunda Village in Senior Chief Kambwiri in the district.

The project, under the Governance to Enable Service Delivery (Gesd), is expected to be completed within 90 days and will include construction of two houses for police officers.

Speaking during the launch on Saturday, Salima South East legislator Mike Mwawa (Malawi Congress Party) said the availability of police officers will address a security lapse in the area.

He said people travel 20 kilometres to access police services at Salima Boma.

Kanyimbiri speaks during the launch

“The long distance to police discourages others from reporting crime. Again, the absence of police fuels mob justice,” said Mwawa.

Salima Police station officer Robert Ngala said the unit will help to increase police visibility in the district.

“Our mandate is to protect people’s lives and property as well as maintain law and order. We will ensure that we provide these services without favour,” he said.

Ngala advised people to take the facility as their own, instead of regarding it as Malawi Police Service property.  “People should work with the contractor to ensure a quality structure,” he said. Salima district commissioner Grace Chirwa Kanyimbiri said the project was long overdue.

“People needed the police unit to address security challenges. When we received the Gesd funds, we could not wait any longer but launch the project,” she said.

She, therefore, advised the constructor to employ community members as ground labourers, saying doing so will develop the area economically.

Kanyimbiri also asked the contractor to follow standard procedures of constructing police units.

Salima District Council received K471 million in the 2022/23 Gesd performance-based grants.n

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