By George Bulombola

Mzuzu, May 30, Mana: Malawi Police Service (MPS) has asked Ministry of Lands to consider training Police in land management and administration, related policies and roles for them to ably enforce amended land laws.

The Appeal was made Thursday by in Mzuzu by Regional Commissioner of Police for the north, Richard Luhanga during a sensitization workshop for Police officers drawn from the north on amended land related laws and Land Information Management System (LIMS) which was organised by Ministry of Labour.

He said knowledge gained through the engagement can be sustained if land administration, management and laws are incorporated in the MPS curriculum.

“Therefore, there is need for the Ministry to train trainers of trainers who could in turn impart such knowledge to colleagues through various courses that we have within our training programmes,” Luhanga suggested.

The Commissioner added that Police officers are always overwhelmed with land related issues which he said are rampart across the country and lead to conflict, theft of land parcels and obtaining land by pretenses.

“We are the first respondents in dealing with these issues in both urban and rural settings. At times police have managed to handle the issues well, we have also handled them wrongly and even failing to give proper advice as we don’t have the knowledge on the same.

Police officers who don’t have the knowledge of land issues have been found themselves adjudicating on such matters. I therefore commend Ministry of Lands for organizing the workshop as the amended laws are about to be rolled out across the country,” he said.

 Luhanga said land Issues are so complicated and quite delicate especially in rural settings where they are intertwined with witchcraft and turn into death traps where people murder each other and property get destroyed due to lack of knowledge on land laws.

Director of Administration in the Ministry of Lands, Dr. Victor Sandikonda described the request from MPS as genuine and that the Ministry would consider it though resources could be a challenge.

“This workshop is very crucial as it provides an opportunity for the Ministry to update MPS on the implementation of the 2016 Land Laws and their respective amendments which were effected in 2022 Land Laws and the LIMS which has been developed under the country’s Land Reform Agenda,” he pointed out.

Sandikonda said that land remains a very vital factor of production in any country, hence it was the base of any meaningful-socio-economic development in all aspects and that customary land cases are emotive and need a sober approach whenever implementing any new policy or piece of legislation.

“If not well executed, land matters may breed chaos, public disorder and disintegrated customary land and administrative system, hence the need for law enforces such as Police to be knowledgeable of these laws,” he said.