KILLER PROPHET JAILED
…he gave man concoction of pesticides
BY NATION REPORTER A LUSAKA-based prophet who fed a sick old man a concoction of pesticide and other substances, under the guise that it would cure him but instead killed him, has been jailed for 10 years. This is a tale of a prophet, trusted by a family for prayers and healing, who took the ailing man from the family home in the night and went with him to the mountain for prayer and intersession. The old man never came back.
Prophet Dickson Kambeni, 35, took Chikhondo Chirwa, to the mountains between October 23, 2014 and 31st after the family informed him that the man was feeling well.
However, when the duo got to the mountain somewhere near Mutumbi Cemetery, the prophet gave his patient some concoction, which laboratory tests later revealed, contained some pesticide and other substances, which killed the man.
According to court records, the old man is believed to have passed out after taking the concoction and a frightened young prophet bolted leaving him to the elements in his unconscious state.
The prophet instead went to the man’s family and pretended that Chirwa had left for home much earlier.
Shocked family members denied seeing their grandfather and insisted that the prophet knew his whereabouts because he was the last person seen with him.
Concerned family members reported the matter to police the following day when their grandfather failed to show up and the prophet insisted he had no idea was the old man could be.
Police subsequently picked up the prophet to help with investigations and asked him to show them where he had taken old man for prayers.
The investigation team with the prophet ended up in the mountains where the man of God showed the officers the spot where he had left Chirwa.
Unknown to the family, Chirwa’s remains had been discovered and retrieved by members of the public and deposited in the University Teaching Hospital mortuary.
The members of the public had reported the discovery of the body to police and this was how the investigations team led the man of God to go and identify the body in the mortuary. The prophet identified the body and confessed that he had made the victim drink a concoction.
Laboratory tests later showed that the concoction contained harmful substances including a pesticide and that there was Dermatoses in the blood.
In passing judgement, Judge Mwape Bowa, on behalf of retired Judge Justin Sikazwe, said he did not believe that the accused had nothing to do with the death of Chirwa as he was a self proclaimed savior who administered poisonous substance.
Judge Sikazwe said the facts implicated the prophet with the death of the accused but observed that he could not only blame the accused because the deceased also believed in him as a person who could heal to the extent that he could even drink a dangerous concoction.
In mitigation, the prophet asked for leniency as a first offender whose act intended to save a life but unfortunately produced the opposite.
He also said while in remand, he had reformed and had had counsel from different denominations and was now a baptized Seventh Day Adventist (SDA) and a family man.
However, the judge said though he took mitigation into consideration, the court had an obligation to mete out a sentence to deter other false prophets.