The High Court sitting in Mzuzu has imposed a life jail term with no possibility of parole on Sam Kaumba, 32, for attempted murder of an 11 year-old boy with albinism in Karonga last year.<\/p>\n
The ruling has been touted as a landmark as it comes at a time people with albinism are facing attacks across the country.<\/p>\n
Judge Dingiswayo Madise heard that on September 2, 2015 the accused conspired with some Swahili-speaking people who promised a ready market for the boy\u2019s body parts.<\/p>\n
The state said on the material day, the boy, Morton Juma, was playing with friends before the convict and his accomplice Fiskani Mhango, 35, called him to collect chickens at his house.<\/p>\n
While on the way, they dragged him to a bush at Ipyana where they attacked him before well-wishers came to his rescue after hearing him shout.<\/p>\n
Through lawyer Dzikondianthu Malunda, the state then pleaded for life sentence saying Kaumba took the boy to the forest with a motive to murder and that the tough sentence would deter other would-be offenders.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe suspect had a motive to kill as evidenced by the wounds sustained by the victim. Kaumba\u2019s conduct has had a negative impact on the boy, his family and the community at large. Therefore, a life sentence will serve as warning to would-be perpetrators and in the process, ensure safety of people with albinism,\u201d said Malunda.<\/p>\n
Passing judgement, Justice Madise agreed with the state saying barbaric acts against people with albinism are deplorable and deserve tougher punishment.<\/p>\n
But Madise acquitted Kaumba\u2019s co-accused Mhango on grounds that the evidence presented against him was inconclusive.<\/p>\n
In mitigation defence lawyer, Chimwemwe Chithope Mwale, pleaded with the court to hand a lenient punishment to his client since he is a first offender and that he is HIV positive, a plea which the court threw out.<\/p>\n
Speaking after the court session, Malunda hailed the court saying stiffer penalties will help contain violence against people with albinism.<\/p>\n
But Chithope Mwale was non-committal on the way forward.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs lawyers, we work on instructions. So firstly we have to make legal interpretation of the judgment and offer options to our client. That\u2019s when we can agree on whether we can go ahead and appeal or not,\u201d said Mwale.<\/p>\n
The sentence means double celebration for the 11-year-old boy who has since been offered a full scholarship by the Mzuzu Academy to complete his education<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, various stakeholders have welcomed the ruling with Child Rights activist Habiba Osman taking to her Facebook page in praise of the development.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The High Court sitting in Mzuzu has imposed a life jail term with no possibility of parole on Sam Kaumba, 32, for attempted murder of an 11 year-old boy with albinism in Karonga last year. The ruling has been touted as a landmark as it comes at a time people with albinism are facing attacks […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":26334,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-26332","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26332","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26332"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26332\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26335,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26332\/revisions\/26335"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26334"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26332"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26332"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26332"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}