Chitipa Court Convicts Village Head, Assistant Over Witchcraft Accusation

The Senior Resident Magistrate’s Court in Chitipa has convicted and sentenced group village head Mwenechewe and his assistant for accusing a person of witchcraft.

The court ordered the village head whose real name is George Simkonda (77), to pay a fine of K250,000 and his assistant, Jacob Kamwela (65) to pay K200,000.

The two were found guilty of falsely accusing Austine Kanyika of practising witchcraft and claiming he was responsible for the illness of village head Mwenechewe 2.

The court heard that the village head and his villagers tried to persuade Kanyika to yield to the accusations, but he denied.

The villagers then destroyed his homes, leaving him stranded.

State prosecutor Lucy Phiri pushed for stiffer sentences, citing the inhumane and unjust nature of the actions of the two, which she said caused psychological harm to the victim.

Senior resident magistrate Ephraim Chikwakwa stated that as village leaders, they should have maintained order and not perpetrated violence.

Both convicts have paid their fines,of which K350,000 will go to the victim as compensation and K100,000 to the government.

The offense of charging a person with witchcraft contravenes Section 4 of the Witchcraft Act.