The Lusaka High Court has sentenced a woman of Lusaka’s Ngombe compound to two years simple imprisonment for beating her daughter to death for being impregnated by a man whom she did not like.
This is in a matter in which Mafunase Banda and her sister Chaiwe were facing a charge of manslaughter.
When the matter came up before judge Susan Wanjelani today, the duo readily admitted the charge.
Facts are that on December 2, 2016 the duo went in search for Mafunase’s daughter upon discovering that she did not return home on time.
During the search for her, the duo went to her boyfriend’s place and begun to call her name.
After some time, Mafunase and Chaiwe forced their way into the house and found the 18-year-old girl hiding under the bed.
The two decided to drag the girl from underneath the bed and begun to beat her up with cooking sticks and a pot.
Mafunase and Chaiwe striped the girl naked and took her to their home where they continued to beat her up.
But the asthmatic girl began gasping for breath and died upon arrival at Levy Mwanawasa General Hospital.
In mitigation, the duo had said they were traumatised following their daughter’s death and asked for the courts leniency as they regretted their actions.
In sentencing the convicts justice Wanjelani said it is unfortunate that an act of discipline led to the death of a child at the hands of her mother.