Dear editor,
Monday December 14, 2020 started as an ordinary day like any other for 31 year old Mwika Kaluwaya and his fiancée, Mapalo Masiku aged 21 both students of Chitambo College of Nursing of Serenje district of Central Province.
However, things took another twist around 14:00 hours on the fateful day when Mwika strangled his girlfriend to death and later killed himself by hanging from a tree in the bush. Mwika was in the third year and his girlfriend was in the second year at the same college.
The reason that led to the death of both students was that Mapalo told her boyfriend that their relationship had ended because she no longer loved him. She further disclosed that she was in love with Patrick whom she loved more than him.
Mwika didn’t receive the news of her ending the intimate relationship with him well. He later took his girlfriend into the bush where he killed her by strangling her neck. If this was not bad enough, he repeatedly hit her head with an object. The two had made a covenant to marry one day.
After brutally murdering his girlfriend, he called a relative of the deceased that he had strangled Mapalo to death because she had dumped him for another man. He further disclosed in a recorded phone conversation that he was disappointed and upset that his girlfriend ended their intimate relationship at the time he loved her most.
Mwika couldn’t bear the disappointment which led to her gruesome murder and that he would commit suicide. However, Central Province Commissioner of Police Chola Katanga confirmed the bizarre incident in which two nursing students of Chitambo College of Nursing were alleged to have died; the lover killed his fiancée and later committed suicide.
Barely two months ago, Zambia Army officer Lieutenant Nigel Mubanga allegedly brutally murdered his girlfriend, Dr. Tasila Tembo and buried her body in the bush in Mikango Barracks area.
The rate at which crime of passion is occurring is very worrying. People in marriages and in intimate relationships kill each other for various reasons such as breakup and infidelity.
In view of the aforementioned, there is need for people in intimate relationships to manage their anger in an event that the partner or spouse is cheating the other. Seeking counsel from the elderly people can be another way of resolving the marital conflicts. It is sad that lives have been lost because of the breakup of the intimate relationship.
ELEMIYA PHIRI,
Lusaka.
