By ALEX NJOVU
As Zambian women joined the rest of the world in commemorating 16 days of gender activism to raise greater awareness around women’s rights, a Jerabo man in Kalulushi allegedly killed in cold blood his 18-year-old wife and later tried to cover up the suspected murder, Police confirmed yesterday.
It is not clear what time the senseless murder occurred but the victim has been identified as Prescosia Chama, who is survived by a one-year-old child she had with the same Jerabo, according to police spokeswoman Elizabeth Kanjela.
“It appears he beat her up quite a lot and when she died, he tried to cover it all up by tying a wire around her neck and hanging her with the same wire in order to make it appear like a suicide,” Kanjela said, “but the post-mortem shows that she did not commit suicide. She could have died as a result of the violent beatings.”
Ms Kanjela told the Daily Mail that Joseph Soko, who has a history of violence, has been arrested and “will appear in court as soon as possible to answer murder charges.”
The infamous Jerabos—a street lingo term which means ex-jail boys or plain thieves—are notorious for their disregard for the law in particular and human life in general.
Their favourite pastime is to hijack on highways truckloads of copper destined for exportation from the various mining houses in the Copperbelt province or beating up people, mostly womenfolk.
In April they stormed a Kitchen Party in Kitwe and beat up the women who were having a party there because one of the girls in the party, the host apparently, had refused to marry one of their copper-thief bosses.
Chama, whose one-year-old child is unlikely to grow up with both parents, is not the only Zambian woman who has been brutalised and killed needlessly in Zambia in recent years as studies show “a sharp rise” in violence against women.
