Government Equips Police With Anti-Riot Equipment

The government has equipped the Zambia Police Service with controversial new anti-riot equipment, allowing law enforcement officers to exert even greater force in their dealings with the public.

It comes just two months after the police service was criticised for its heavy-handed response to protests in Lusaka against political corruption. Police were deployed to the streets in full riot gear, with one PF member of parliament urging them to ‘break protestors bones if possible’. 

Speaking at the handover ceremony on Thursday, Home Affairs Minister Stephen Kampyongo assured Zambians that it was only the criminal classes who should be concerned about the new equipment. 

“We will not be derailed by armchair critics who are hell-bent on condemning every piece of development that President Edgar Chagwa Lungu and his Government initiates in National interest because for us as Home Affairs the Peace and security of this nation is supreme,” the minister said. 

The new equipment includes armoured and horse-carrying vehicles, water cannons, ambulances and dog carriers. 

Inspector General of the Police Kakoma Kanganja thanked the government and president Lungu for their support and pledged to ensure law and order during and after the 2021 presidential and general elections.