10/09/2025
ABOUT KALOMO’S MAWAYA COMPOUND.
KNOWN to be the first administrative center of Northern Rhodesia, serving until the capital city was established at Livingstone in 1907. Kalomo is fast transforming into a developed town.
79-year-old Alfred Makalani, a senior citizen who has lived in Kalomo town for 51 years, recalls how one of the townships ‘Mawaya’ in Kalomo was established.
Mr. Makalani having worked for the council explains that the name ‘Mawaya’ was derived from the inhabitants who were living there as laborers.
He said the area was started as an unplanned settlement with the people who are poor and struggling to earn a living.
Mr. Makalani disclosed that the council has over the years been handling the settlers of the area adding that a lot of transformation in terms of infrastructure has been witnessed with the change of houses.
He says they used to live in grass thatched houses that were made out of mud, but now the locals have upgraded to living in burnt bricks and concrete houses.
Mr. Makalani noted the contribution of the locals in providing health and education services even though the place itself lacks land for the construction of a government school to help children access free education.
Mr. Makalani said despite the unprecedented development that Mawaya has seen, the area still lacks some basic amenities such as water reticulation and high unemployment levels among the youths making it difficult for them to survive.
Despite all the beauty, mawaya has seen the growth of shebeens which in some cases will go all night playing loud music, cartels of young men walking in the night aimlessly to the risk of late night walkers just to mention but a few calling for the increase of night patrols and control of drug related activities by the police.
Another resident of Mawaya township Beatrice Kunja said the successful construction of the clinic in the area was as a result of the unity among the people who contributed bricks towards the construction of the projects.