Even the little I had got taken away

On July 4, 2005, I went to Lukulu Police Station to follow up the maize and monies owed to me from my former husband. While at the police, two female police officers asked me if I had seen any people selling or buying cattle in my village. I said no. The police told me that they had information that I had stolen 21 heads of cattle. I told them that I was going to bring the person who sold me the cattle to the police station, but I was unable to find him. I told the officers this when I returned to the station a few days later.

 

It was then that male officers handcuffed me to metal on the ground and started questioning me. I had my one year, eight months-old granddaughter on my back as the officers battered me. In the night, a CID officer told me to remove my pants and bend while I was still handcuffed to the metal on the ground. He stood behind me and started pulling my labia.

 

The officers continued battering me. When my grand child cried, one of the officers slapped her hard on her face and told her, “You have been eating stolen cattle with your grandmother.” On the following day, the magistrate came to see me in the police cells. He instructed the police officer to take me to the magistrate court for mention and a speedy trial so that I could go and rot in Mongu prison, the biggest prison in Western province. The officer took me to court. The Magistrate read out a charge of two counts of stock theft and sentenced me to five years for each. I raised my hand to ask who the complainant was in the matter, but the Magistrate told me to shut up, as I was a thief.

 

That is how my trial went. I had no chance to know whose cattle I had stolen, when and where. They did not give me a chance to speak, or have a fair trial where witnesses could testify to my theft. The following morning around 04:00 hours I was told to leave my granddaughter at the reception and I was taken to Mongu Prison.

 

Before I could raise the money for the appeal, I was then taken to Mukobeko Maximum Prison in Kabwe Central Province. While at Mukobeko a female warder told Legal Resources Foundation (LRF) which took the matter to court and represented me until I was released.

 

When I got to Lukulu, I found that the police officers got my cattle, four bags of maize and that my house burned down with everything I owned. Some relatives had taken the orphans, my children and grandchildren. However, I learned that the grandchild I had left at the police station the day police arrested me died of malaria while I was in prison.

 

I could not stay in Lukulu. It was too much for me to bear. Now I have no field and no seed to help me grow my own food. I have nothing. I even wish those people had just killed me at the time of arrest or that I had died than to live like this.

 

Before this ordeal, I grew my own food; I worked hard for myself, and had enough to eat and feed the orphans in my custody. Now my house and all my household goods are gone. I do not even know how my grandchild died. Her death traumatises me. I know that these people committed an offence to send me to prison without trial, but if I pursue the case, they would kill me. I would rather leave them alone.