Sakeni annoys Luena MP on pregnant Limulunga pupils

Sakeni annoys Luena MP on pregnant Limulunga pupils
By Mwala Kalaluka and Kombe Chimpinde
Mon 19 Mar. 2012, 11:59 CAT

LUENA member of parliament Mwambwa Imenda says home affairs minister Kennedy Sakeni's comments over revelations of police officers impregnating 30 Mongu pupils are irresponsible.

And ADD president Charles Milupi says he is disappointed with Sakeni's response over the issue of the 30 pupils of Limulunga school that were allegedly impregnated by police officers who were camped there after the January 14 Mongu fracas.

But Sakeni says according to the official reports in the government's possession, the girls were impregnated in consensual circumstances, and maintains that nobody stops the parents of the children in question from lodging a complaint to the police if they feel this amounts to defilement.

Imenda, a member of the ADD and Forum for African Women Educationists in Zambia, said in an interview that no government could justify what the police reinforcements sent to quell the Mongu riots did to the school girls.

She was reacting to Sakeni's statement that Vice-President Guy Scott's parliamentary statement that about 30 girls of Limulunga High School were impregnated by police officers who camped there was an exaggeration.

Imenda raised the issue on the floor of Parliament during the Vice-President's question time and Vice-President Scott said the matter was contained in the Roger Chongwe commission of inquiry report, which was receiving active consideration from Cabinet.

An emotionally-charged Imenda said in an interview yesterday that such a response was not expected from Sakeni, whose responsibility was to protect vulnerable members of society such as girl children.

"It is very irresponsible of the minister to even speak the way he does. Whatever argument he is bringing… and even disputing the figures. So he knows that this thing happened."

Imenda said in his ministerial statement, Sakeni should give the age of each of the 14 girls he said were impregnated by the police officers.

"It was very irresponsible of the minister to react that way. He is even comparing the UN… hasn't he heard the world condemn such UN peacekeepers who prey on such persons? He is saying that they were right just because it happens in peacekeeping. Therefore, does it make it right?" she asked.

"Is the girl-child safe in circumstances where even ministers seem to be coming to the defence of wrongdoing? If such things are condoned by people who are supposed to deal with the problem then we are not safe, our children are not safe. Why accommodate single police officers in classrooms?"

And Milupi said there was something wrong with the country's governance system.

"This is why we say there is something wrong with the governance of this country. We raised those complaints (of police officers being camped at a school) in Parliament. We the concerned said that camping police officers at schools was wrong," Milupi said.

"I don't know what the PF is up to. What we are saying is that that was wrong and it must be condemned because the government of the day created things to happen. We are not talking about whether that operation was correct or not. If we can accept that in Zambia, then I don't know what we will not accept. Mr Sakeni must not say this because it happened in Western Province and not Luapula (Province)."

He maintained that the particular case did not only occur at Limulunga but at Kumbule High School as well.

"This is a serious matter. If Guy Scott had said that this was also indicated in the Chongwe-led commission of inquiry, then it is confirmed that was the number," Milupi said.

But Sakeni maintained in an interview that there was nobody who had stopped the girls' parents from lodging a formal complaint to police if there was a case of defilement.

"The records in Mongu show that none of those cases were reported apart from verbal reports by the headmaster, who raised a concern to the police that some of the pupils had stopped going to school because they were pregnant and had been impregnated by the police officers from Kamfinsa but honestly speaking, police normally act on cases if it is established that this is rape or defilement or whoever is concerned reports to the police," he said.

Sakeni said according to the official reports in government's possession, only 14 girls had been reported impregnated in consensual circumstances, stressing that if this was otherwise, parents must be free to report the said cases.

"Literally, there is nobody who has stopped those who thought their children were defiled from reporting. It was their understanding with the police officers, so surely does that amount to defilement?" asked Sakeni.