Snr Chief Kwataine faults communities for Nsipe Health Centre closure

Senior Chief Kwataine condemned acts of lawlessness displayed by communities around Nsipe Health Center in Ntcheu district that has resulted into the temporal closure of a health centre.

The health centre which is run by the Catholic Health Commission of the Catholic Church under Dedza Diocese, has been serving thousands of communities around the trading centre and beyond is closed due to security reasons.

But in a recent statement, the Diocese of Dedza has expressed sadness over the security lapse which risked lives of health workers in Nsipe area.

The animosity between the communities and health workers originated from a court ruling on issues regarding land encroachment.

The court ordered communities to leave the land around the facility by the 31^st of October, this year.

However, the security situation is still volatile despite some encroachers answering charges in court on causing bodily harm and malicious damage to the property.

Senior Chief Kwataine has told Capital FM that the closure is a big blow to communities under his jurisdiction who he says are to blame for the whole mess.

“The majority of the people in the area have always been accessing medical care and services from Nsipe which is close to their localities than most of the public facilities. The most reliable facility is at Ntcheu District Council which is far from most of the areas,” Kwataine said.

The Senior Chief further disclosed that the matter of land encroachment started long time ago, but they could not effectively handle it due to what he termed as arrogance and bad attitude by most of the communities.

This according to Kwataine was the reason why they advised the Diocese to take the matter to court for redress.

Meanwhile, Dedza Diocese has warned that it will not hesitate to close other facilities in area, if the situation does not improve,

These include Nsipe Primary and Community Day Secondary Schools, meaning people in the area may not be able to access both health and education services due to disagreements between them and service providers.