2 women jailed for manslaughter

By CHINTU MALAMBO THE Lusaka High Court was yesterday turned into a funeral house as a two-year sentence was being passed on two women who beat an 18-year-old woman to death, over alleged immoral conduct.

The two women wept uncontrollably as judgement was being passed.

Before High Court Justice Susan Wanjelani was Mafunase Irene Banda, the mother of the deceased and Chaiwa Banda who pleaded guilty to manslaughter.

The two informed Lady Justice Wanjelani that they understood the charge and that they had nothing to add or subtract from it.

Facts before court were that on 2nd December, 2016 at 18:30 hours, the accused left their home in Lusaka's Old Ng'ombe and went in search of the deceased who had not returned home after visiting her father in Lusaka west.

They found the deceased at her boyfriend’s house and when they called her to come outside, she did not answer but instead hid under the bed.

The duo followed her and dragged her from under the bed and they started beating her with all sorts of tools and further took her home where they continued beating her.

The deceased who had asthma struggled to breathe and stopped responding. She was later taken to Levy Mwanawasa General Hospital where she was pronounced dead.

Postmortem results revealed that the deceased died due to status aspersion and multiple force injuries.

In their mitigation, the two women readily pleaded with the court to exercise lenience as the death of their child was already enough punishment which would haunt them for the rest of their lives.

They said that the intention was not to kill but discipline their child whom they loved so much and that they regretted the action which led to the unfortunate death of the deceased.

In her judgment, Justice Wanjelani said she had carefully considered mitigation that the duo were first offenders who readily pleaded guilty to the actions without wasting the court’s time.

“I have carefully considered the facts and mitigation as read. I know that they are first offenders who have readily pleaded guilty to the actions and thus deserve my maximum leniency,” Justice Wanjelani said.

However, she said it was a sad and unfortunate event that led to the death of an 18-year-old woman who was supposed to be nurtured.

Justice Wanjelani said it was a lesson that violence did not solve anything but led to loss of life. Subsequently, she convicted the duo to two years simple imprisonment each backdated to the day of their arrest.