The Lusaka Magistrate Court has acquitted three government employees who were accused of human trafficking contrary to section 3 (1) (2) and 8 of the Anti Human Trafficking Act number 11 of 2008.
Before Lusaka Magistrate William Banda was Modrin Tembo, Charity Mutende and Gertrude Sichone accused of one count of human trafficking.
Particulars of the offence are that the accused, between October 30, 2009 and August 9, 2010, being persons employed as juvenile inspectors at the Ministry of Community Development Mother and Child Health intentionally and unlawfully did transfer a child named Jacob Musukwa across territorial boundaries of Zambia by means of an illegal adoption contrary to the Adoption Act.
In the matter, eight witnesses testified before the court.
And in delivering ruling Magistrate Banda said the main issue was that the adoption was legal from the evidence given by the witnesses and that it was clear that the adoption process was followed.
Magistrate Banda said that according to the fourth witness Ireen Kalaluka, she issued the effective date of notice on behalf of the Commissioner of Social Welfare because she was not satisfied that the documents needed for adoption were presented to her.
Magistrate Banda further said that Kalaluka confirmed the said effective date of notice which signaled the beginning of the adoption process.
He said the adoption process was legal and thus a reasonable tribunal properly applying its mind on all facts of the case cannot convict the accused.
And Police in Nakonde district of Muchinga Province have arrested a 22- year -old-woman of Ntindi Township for allegedly stealing a one month –old- baby. Police told Zambia News and Information Services (ZANIS) in Nakonde yesterday that Harriet Namukonda is alleged to have stolen the child in Kasama district in Northern Province last week.
The police alleged that Namukonda went to Kasama last week where she asked to hold the baby in question from its mother on pretext that she just wanted to help her carry it. Namukonda however, sneaked out with the baby and went to Kasama TAZARA Railway station and got on a passenger train to Nakonde.
Namukonda told her neighbours on arrival back home in Nakonde that whilst in Kasama, she gave birth to a bouncing baby boy. Namukonda was arrested over the weekend following a complaint lodged by the owner of the baby through police in Kasama.
She told a ZANIS reporter from her cell at Nakonde police station that she decided to steal the baby because she had been failing to conceive.
Namukonda who got married at the age of 14, said for the past eight years, she has been failing to conceive and her husbands’ relatives have been saying bad things about her for failing to conceive in the last eight years she has been in marriage.
“It is because of the pressure I receive from my husbands’ relatives and my friends that made me to start admiring other people’s babies, “said Nakonde.
When contacted for a comment, Muchinga Province police commissioner Standwell Lungu said he had not yet received a report on the matter and promised to comment later.
Awe kwena!!!!
Pa Zambia………………LOL
Kwena; how was her physiological appearance prior to and after coming back from Kasama, for any neighbour to believe she was pregnant and had delivered? No sense! Just put more effort, to get your own madam. If your husban or yourself can’t produce, then, ask those from the East about a practice called ‘Fisi’ – they will organise someone to come at night and ACT.
How did this case move from illegal adoption to human trafficking in the first place?