Maravi

Mwiya Sihope dies

Mwiya Sihope dies
By Mwala Kalaluka in Mongu
Wed 20 Apr. 2011, 04:06 CAT

THE 70-year-old Mon-gu man whose right leg was amputated shortly after release from Lusaka Central Prison on a Barot-seland Agreement-related treason char-ge has died.

Mwiya Sihope’s 54-year-old wife, Inonge, said in an interview at the house of mourning at Mongu’s Mbuywana plots yesterday that her husband died at around 22:00 hours on Monday in Lewanika General Hospital. Inonge said Sihope completely lost his speech five days before he passed away.

“From Sunday and Monday the condition worsened and he was even put on oxygen for two days,” Inonge said. “We have since informed most of the relatives and they are coming to the funeral house.”
Inonge said the family was very devastated by Sihope's death.

“It is us who have been left with this problem and there is nothing to be happy about such a death,” said Inonge.

The family said burial arrangements would be announced later.

Following The Post’s expose of events leading to Sihope's amputation at Lewanika Hospital shortly after he arrived in Mongu from a 56-day detention at Lusaka Central Prison on a treason charge, Police Inspector General Francis Kabonde vehemently disputed that the amputation had any connection to the detention.

Kabonde said in a statement last Wednesday that when Sihope was released on a nolle prosequi he had both legs.

Kabonde claimed that Sihope was admitted to Lewanika General Hospital for asthma-related complications, which later forced medical experts to amputate his right leg.

However, in her reaction to Kabonde's claims, Inonge maintained that her husband's amputation was necessitated by a medical condition that started whilst he was in detention and that this was not a lie.
Inonge, in an interview last Thursday, said the reaction from the Police as published and broadcast in the Zambia Daily Mail, radios and television was just propaganda.

“How can I lie about my husband when I am the person who is closest to him and knows him better?” Inonge asked. “If he was in that condition before he was detained, they would not have arrested him in the first place.”

Inonge further wondered how asthma and gangrene were related for Kabonde to say that her husband was a known patient of asthma.

Inonge said the position that she gave to The Post that the medical condition that led to her husband's amputation occurred whilst he was in detention was the correct one.

“That is what we even told the people that were interviewing us in the theatre,” she said. “I am not lying and this is why even the family is very angry because they knew that my husband was a smart man before he was arrested.”

Inonge said even some people that were detained together with her husband in Lusaka attested to the same position.

According to hospital sources, gangrene, which is a condition that develops when the flow of blood is disturbed, was in no way connected to asthma.

Nayoto Liamba, another Mongu man who together with Sihope and others were on the night of January 13, 2011 arrested and taken to Lusaka where they were charged with treason, said Sihope's condition was connected to his detention.

Liamba said in an interview last Friday that almost all the Barotse detainees, himself included, sustained swollen feet because they were unable to lie down in the cells during the night for the over 50 days they were detained.

Liamba, who attributed Sihope's condition to the congestion in the prison, said he would not have been amputated if he had not been arrested.

Liamba, who revealed that Police officers initially refused to allow Sihope seek medical attention, wondered where the Human Rights Commission HRC were when they were living under such conditions whilst in detention.

Labels: BAROTSE FREEDOM MOVEMENT

posted by MrK @ 7:18 AM