Magistrate commits two siblings to the High Court for sentencing after finding them guilty of incest
By Staff Reporter
LUSAKA magistrate Faides Hamaundu has referred a case where two biological siblings married each other to the High Court for sentencing after convicting them of incestuous behaviour knowingly.
Magistrate Hamaundu said Alivad Mumba and Mirriam Hara knew that they were brother and sister but continued having sexual intercourse resulting in the birth of two children as a couple.
She however, said she committed the case to the High Court for sentencing as she has no jurisdiction to pass a minimum sentence of 15 years.
Mumba and Mirriam between 2014 and October 6, 2018 in Lusaka had carnal knowledge of each other knowing very well that they were siblings.
A DNA test confirmed that Mumba and Mirriam are biological siblings.
Delivering a judgement today, magistrate Hamaundu found them guilty and convicted them.
She said although Mumba left his home village in Petauke in 1997, Miriam was only five years old but he knew her as his sister as he used to visit a brother Leonard Mwanza who later started looking after the later.
The magistrate said Mumba later got Mirriam from Mwanza’s place to go for holiday in 2012 but that she never returned as the two started having an incestuous relationship.
Magistrate Hamaundu said in the eight years they lived as a couple, the accused never disclosed their relationship to any of their relatives because they knew that what they were doing was immoral.
She added that even after Mirriam was told by one of her aunties that Mumba was her brother, she continued having sexual intercourse with him at the expense of her education.
Magistrate Hamaundu said Mumba and Mirriam knew that the person they were having sexual intercourse with was a biological sibling and knew that the same was not right.
She convicted and committed them to the High Court for sentencing.
The mother to the two convicts, Enala Mwanza, 57, a farmer of Petauke had testified that she had eight children, among them Mumba and Mirriam.
She had told the court that Mumba and Mirriam had different fathers and that Mumba left the village in 1997 to live with his auntie while Mirriam left in 2012.
The mother further testified that ever since her children left, she only came to see them when she was informed that they were arrested and charged with incest.
