Law and order Malawi

Malawian man to spend 20 years in jail for sleeping with biological daughter

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Malawian man to spend 20 years in jail for sleeping with biological daughter

BLANTYRE-(MaraviPost)—The Chief Resident Magistrate’s Court sitting in Lilongwe has sentenced a 40-year-old man, Lickson Chadza, to 20 years imprisonment with hard labour for sleeping with his biological daughter.

The court through state prosecutor Sub Inspector Thokozani Juziwell heard that Chadza was sleeping with his biological daughter to fulfill the instructions from the traditional doctor.

He further told the court that the accused was employed as a maize miller operator and he wanted to make his employer love him more than other workers.

He then visited an unknown traditional doctor who gave him instructions to sleep with his own biological daughter as part of the ritual.

It was also learnt in court that the traditional doctor advised him to sleep with his daughter for seven times, but he only managed to fulfill the ordeal five times before the victim reported the matter to her mother.

He was arrested and charged with the offence of incest and was tried and convicted by Dowa First Grade Magistrate Amran Phiri after he pleaded guilty to the incest charge.

When presenting sentence submissions, state prosecutor Sergeant Edwin Wala pleaded with the court to transfer the case to the Chief Resident Magistrate or to the High Court of Malawi for a stiffer and longer sentence.

The court in Dowa granted the permission and forwarded the file before the Chief Resident Magistrate’s Court for sentence.

On Friday, August 6 2021, the case was set for sentence before the Chief Resident Magistrate Patrick Chirwa, who proceeded to jail the convict to 20 years imprisonment with hard labour, saying the sentence will send as a deterrent to others with similar intentions.

Chadza comes from Siliya Village in the area of Traditional Authority Chiwere in Dowa District.

Maneno Chimulala

I am a journalist, educator, and activist with passion for telling stories about social justice, sports and political issues. I graduated from Mzuzu University. I started my career at the Maravi Post online publication in 2012 as an intern while in college. Upon graduating from Mzuzu University I was offered a job as Sports Reporter because of my background as a goalkeeper and rose to the position of sub editor. I also had a short stint with Nyasatimes, Malawi Punch and Malawi Digest. Over the past seven years, I have worked intimately with rural organizations and communities in Malawi on human rights, girl child education and grassroots development projects. With an academic background in education, I also volunteer as male champion for girls’ education under Girls Empowerment Networks (GENET) in Malawi’s South West Education Division (SWED).