LIFE, it would appear, is increasingly becoming nasty, brutish and lawless for residents of Lusaka’s notorious Chibolya Township given the recent engagement  with Police in skirmishes after the Drug Enforcement Commission conducted an anti-drug operation in which nine people were arrested.
The township,  which is notorious for drug trafficking, extortion and regarded  a no-go area for law enforcement officers,  was turned into a “battlefield” as Police fired tear gas canisters, while residents retaliated by hurling stones and other objects they could get their hands on.
One would be forgiven for thinking that Chibolya is in the middle of a lawless jungle without DEC, police, mobile phones and security response services.
The recent incident sends all the wrong signals considering that it occurred right off  Lusaka’s central business district, which raises questions about the safety of business
properties, residents and travelling public who are under the false belief that theirs and themselves are safe.
What is worrying about Chibolya’s emerging  drug crimes trend is that too often, security agencies take too long to respond even when they are alerted on time.
It could be that they face logistical problems that make them less efficient than the public expects them to be. But they have a duty to identify these weaknesses and find ways of
overcoming them.
As it is, they often come hours after the incident and usually, they have no capacity to collect evidence, track down the drug-traffickers or gather preliminary information that could help them solve the illicit crimes faster.
Some of these things will require serious investment in equipment, but most only require greater initiative and
diligence by the officers.
Unfortunately, it has become practice for the state police to act only when the public resorts to unruly behaviour.
Mubanga Luchembe,
LUSAKA