Fri, 15 Sep 2017 10:52:39 +0000
By Bennie Mundando
KAZEMBE Miselo, a pupil of Arakan Secondary School who plucked out his friend’s eye in May this year and went into hiding after being shielded from police by his father who is a soldier, has finally been arrested and charged with contempt of court and assault after a five-month hunt.
Kazembe, who went to court yesterday after skipping two court sessions and ignoring two police call-outs was immediately arrested at the magistrate’s court soon after his arrival in the company of his mother and then transferred to Mtendere police where a docket against him had been opened.
By press time, Kazembe was not yet transferred to Woodlands police station where he was being awaited, bringing an end to speculations about his whereabouts as his mother had insisted he was with his father while his father continuously eluded police by alleging that the boy was not at his house.
On May 10, 2017, Kazembe Miselo, a Grade 11 pupil at Arakan Secondary School allegedly hit Abby Ngoma on the eye with a bottle after the victim refused to give him money to go and attend a party, leaving his friend hospitalised at the University Teaching Hospital for almost a week before his eye was removed and replaced by an artificial one.
Sensing the impending arrest of his son, Boyd Miselo, a warrant officer class one in the Zambia Army rushed to Mtendere where his son was staying with his mother after he divorced her and took him to Lusaka West where he was hiding him.
When Mtendere police officers went to the barracks to arrest him, they were allegedly told that the premises were out of bounds to any police officer.
Attempts to ambush the boy from school again failed as school authorities allegedly hid him, saying he had stopped going to school after the incident. The police sent two call-outs to Mr. Miselo to compel him avail his son but he ignored them.
The case was then taken to court but still, Mr. Miselo failed to avail his son on two occasions.
His first court appearance was supposed to be on July 12, 2017 but never showed up, forcing the court to adjourn the matter to August 24, 2017.
On August 24, Kazembe’s mother kept the court waiting from 09:00 to 12:00 as she continually said her son and her former husband were on their way to court from Lusaka West but never showed up and the case was adjourned to yesterday, leading to his arrest.
When the first story was published by the Daily Nation on how Mr. Miselo had shielded his son from police, he threatened the reporter that he would know what to do with him since he had jeopardised things at work.
“How could you go ahead and put that on the headline? On Monday, I will go to the police station (and find out) whether they have opened a docket for that boy because you know that procedure for assault.
Further to that, I will also see what I will do because you see, you have jeopardised my work because everybody has read that. It is unethical for the journalist to do likewise.
“By Monday, things will start. I will see the way forward. It is better you retract that information, that data which you gave the nation,” Mr. Miselo warned.
