MZUZU-(MaraviPost)-The Malawi Police in Chitipa on Sunday, August, 9 2020, arrested a man for allegedly killing his step daughter.
According to Chitipa Police Public Relations Officer, Gladwell Simwaka, the man has been identified as Wayuyo Pwele and the late stepdaughter is a two and a half year old Lusekelo Banda.
Reports indicate that the incident occurred on the night of August 8, 2020 at Njebete Village, Traditional Authority (T.A) Mwenemisuku in the district.
The fact of the matter is that the suspect is married to Mirriam Mushiko, 18, and have been in marriage for seven months. At the meantime, the woman is five months pregnant. But before this marriage, she already had a child (deceased) from another man.
All along, the suspect was not at peace with the presence of the stepdaughter in the family and he demanded that she should be sent to her grandparents. But the wife did not follow this advice.
On this fateful night, the suspect is alleged to have strangled the child after he came back from a beer joint. When the wife tried to intervene, he beat and chased her out of the house.
Immediately, the woman reported the matter to their marriage advocates who quickly came to rescue the child by rushing her to Misuku Health Centre where she was pronounced dead upon arrival.
Postmortem results showed that death was due to suffocation secondary to strangulation.
Pwele, 18, will appear in Court soon to answer a murder charge. He hails from Njebete village,Traditional Authority (T.A) Mwenemisuku in Chitipa district.
Police in the country are advising husbands who are married to women who already have children to look at the stepchildren as their own by giving them unconditional love.
