Rabecca Banda writes
A school leaver has been charged with k10, 000 penalty for damaging girl’s virginity and impregnanting her.
Lampard Luhanga,19, of John Laing was appearing before Boma local court, Honourable Harriet Mbewe, in a matter in which he was sued by Royd Banda, 39, a tailor of Makeni.
Banda had sued Luhanga for damaging the virginity of his daughter, Ruth, 17.
Banda explained that he became concerned when he noticed a sudden change of behavior in his daughter.
He said that a few days later he found his daughter with Luhanga.
“I warned Luhanga countless times to stay away from my daughter and explained that there cannot be any friendship between them but he did not listen,” Banda said.
“My daughter was not looking fine. She was in grade six and came home around 01:00 hours,” Banda said.
“My wife and I called a few elderly people to counsel her and she revealed that she was pregnant and Luhanga was responsible,” Banda said.
Banda said when he went to discuss the matter with the boy’s father, the other family wanted the two to start staying together, a situation he did not agree with.
“I decided to bring the matter to the court because I want Luhanga to take responsibility for his actions,” Banda said.
In his defense, Luhango said it was not damage but was ready to take the girl and stay with him.
“She asked me to have sex with her because of the problems she was having at her home, and I agreed,” Luhanga said.
“I used to find her by the road side near my house and she would ask me to escort her home,” Luhanga said.
He explained that, her (Ruth) parents wanted to marry her off to another man but she refused.
“ After that her father started beating her and chased her from the house to stay at her grand parents’ house,” Luhanga said.
The court ordered Luhanga to pay K10, 000 damage in installments of K1000 for the first month and K200 then on.
The court also cautioned the parents against encouraging early child marriages as they are both still young.
