The development comes two weeks after police officers staged a public protest over allowances after offering security services at Kamuzu International Airport during the Sadc Summit.

These include at least ten from KIA in a move that some of them link to the protest for which they were later summoned to police headquarters at area 30 for disciplining. The transfers are with immediate effect.

Security and good governance expert Sheriff Kaisi has described the development as disappointing and demotivating to the men and women in uniform. "The timing is wrong and it is unfortunate if this is linked to it," he said.

The decision has been communicated in a wireless message dated 31 August 2021 signed for by Director of Human Resource Management and Development, Commissioner Stan Kaliza.

But Malawi police spokesperson, James Kadadzera, told us that the transfers are an internal matter which the police do not have to justify to the public.

"These matters can not be discussed as it is against laws of the police force," he said.

The police officers at KIA claimed that they had been given three thousand kwacha each in allowances for each of the ten days that they were deployed when, elsewhere, officers were being given 30 thousand a day. Disparities in allowances to police officers appear to be an issue spread across the country.

There are reports that officers at Limbe Police Station are also complaining of similar disparities for security services being rendered where private entities pay more and are actually given less.