UNIMA’s Law Enforcement Management & Leadership students to formalize formation of their Society by electing new office bearers on Friday

The new aspiring president

* The Bachelor’s Degree programme is in its second year registered under the Faculty of Social Sciences

* But also offers courses from all faculties like the forensic chemistry, managerial accounting, constitutional & administrative law

* The 4-year programme also offers fingerprints & impressions as well as custody management

* Its main stakeholders are the Malawi Police Service, Malawi Prisons, the Immigration Department and UNIMA

By Duncan Mlanjira

Students for the new programme at the University of Malawi (UNIMA), the Bachelor’s Degree in Law Enforcement Management & Leadership, established their own grouping — UNIMA Law Enforcement Society in 2020 — and is set to be formalized through elections of new office bearers on Friday at their campus at Chancellor College in Zomba.

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This new Bachelor’s Degree is in its second year registered under the Faculty of Social Sciences but also offers courses from all faculties like the forensic chemistry, managerial accounting, constitutional & administrative law, fingerprints & impressions as well as custody management.

The 4-year programme — whose main stakeholders are the Malawi Police Service, Malawi Prisons, the Immigration Department and UNIMA — will give third year students an opportunity to major in any of its specialty such as forensics or management.

It was created to fill some gaps that Malawi’s law enforcement agencies are facing, such that many criminal cases fall apart as most police prosecutors usually present inefficient evidence in court.

Mwaku Kalambule, one of the three aspiring for the UNIMA Law Enforcement Society presidency, who is one of the first intake and now in second year, is thrilled that he is studying this course, saying that it was observed that “a lot of police officers don’t know the law; they do not respect certain human rights — that’s why we learn Constitutional, Administrative and Criminal Law”.

He said the Society was established in 2020 but hasn’t yet been formally launched on campus “as it was awaiting formal registration for it to be operating legally. It has just been registered this year.

The first president was Moses Chipeta and the forthcoming elections will be the second to be held following the first which was held in 2020.

In his manifesto presented on Tuesday during a campaign general assembly, Kalambule told his fellow students that the Bachelor’s Degree in Law Enforcement program is little known in the country and he pledged that the Society’s activities are “massively marketed not only here at the university, but also outside this institution”.

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He pledged that there was need to carry out outreach activities “through voluntary work and participation in events associated with the major law enforcement agencies around the country”.

“Publicity and educating those outside this society will be a major objective. I have already reached out to an interested parties — the Malawi media which is willing to work with us for visibility so that we may one day we shall attract sponsorship from stakeholders in the corporate world for our activities.

He impressed on the members that there was need for unity in participation of the outreach activities his executive committee shall initiate so that they earn the respect of the society to which they will join.

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“Through multiple socializing events I plan to initiate, we will be able to bond well and carry out our duties seamlessly together once we graduate,” he said.

He also pledged to bond well with the country’s law enforcement agencies such as the Malawi Police Service, Malawi Prisons, the Immigration and various stakeholders with whom they will work with upon graduation.

“We have what it takes and together we will make it possible. I have for quite a period of time meditated on what our mighty Law Enforcement program and society is capable of doing.

“Before we think of turning our dreams into a day-to-day reality, I have one request to you all if we are to indeed break the chains of the past: your future depends on what you make of it.

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“This Society can give you that framework, can give an expression to the will of the students, but the students must also have that will themselves. The will to want more and better for themselves. If you don’t have it, there is nothing a society can do.”

He also pledged that once they graduate he shall initiate that they establish a national society that will affiliate itself, if possible, with the Malawi Law Society.

The national Society to be formed shall also work hand in hand with the campus grouping just as the Malawi Law Society works with UNIMA’s law student society.