ABOUT THE RISE IN DEFILEMENT AND INCEST CASES: KEY DRIVERS AND POSSIBLE INTERVENTIONS
By Sean Tembo – PeP President & TONSE ALLIANCE Spokesperson
1. Why would a grown man have sexual relations with a child? Worse still, why would a father have sexual relations with their own daughter? This has become a huge menace in the past 12 months or so. It has always been a problem since time immemorial, but of late, it has become a worse problem. About 15 years ago when the penalty for defilement was stiffened to a maximum of 35 years imprisonment with hard labor, the cases of defilement dwindled significantly, but there is now a serious upswing.
2. The worst part of it all is that there does not appear to be a coherent and structured intervention by Government, to address this problem, other than grandstanding rantings designed to achieve political mileage. I was amazed when l saw the Minister of Justice, Princess Kasune, tell the men in Parliament, a few weeks ago, that she is available to sleep with them, so that they do not have to go after young girls. Well, l think that is a simplistic approach to the issue, but thanks for letting us know about your availability, Honorable Minister!!!
3. My considered view is that the problem of defilement and incest is one that is fueled by societal beliefs and practices, especially among the less privileged in our society. My understanding is that the initial epidemic of defilement cases, which broke out in the late 1990s and early 2000s, was driven by the mistaken belief among some men that when they sleep with a minor, they will be cured of their HIV/AIDS illness. This was around the time when HIV/AIDS was at its peak, and people had very little understanding of it, so the Traditional Healers took advantage of the situation and started prescribing fake solutions to desperate people infected with HIV/AIDS.
4. Even during the first epidemic of defilement cases, I did not see any tailored programs by Government, designed to achieve behavioral change in our society, and specifically meant to dispel the then belief that one could be cured of HIV/AIDS by having sexual relations with a child. In my view, what saved the situation then was the advent of ARVs. As more and more people began to realize that they could lead a perfectly normal life with HIV/AIDS, provided they consistently took their ARV medication, the less people believed the false prescriptions of Traditional Healers.
5. But then, what has driven this second wave of defilement cases, which appears to be intertwined with incest cases? From what l have gathered on the ground, it is again Traditional Healers who are at the center of the problem. I hear that Traditional Healers are giving false prescriptions to people that they can have sudden riches if they have sexual relations with minors and also their own children!!! And with the current economic hardships, coupled with people’s laziness and appetite for sudden riches, these factors are seriously driving the problem of defilement and incest to epidemic proportions, especially among the underprivileged in our society.
6. The new twist to the current epidemic of defilement and incest cases however, is that the women are as much involved as the men. While the act of defilement and incest is itself perpetrated by the man, it often has the blessings and approval of the wife !!! Both man and wife often buy into the false prescriptions by Traditional Healers for quickly getting rich, and they are selfishly willing to use their children as sacrificial lambs!!! This situation presents a unique problem because it makes it extremely difficult for cases of defilement and incest to be discovered and successfully prosecuted in a home. Oftentimes, it is only when the minor child is impregnated that the crime is revealed to the public.
7. It is because of such conspiracy between the man and the wife, that l was not surprised with what transpired at Kabwata Police Station the other day, whereby three wives were arrested for attempting to bribe Police Officers so that they can release their husband, who was in custody for defiling his minor daughter. If the three wives were not aware, and did not approve of the man’s defilement of his daughter, l doubt that they would have moved with such speed to mobilize K4,800 to go and attempt to bribe the Police Officers so that they could drop the case against their husband. If they were not part of the scam, natural human behavior dictates that they should have been angry towards the man for defiling the daughter, and if they did forgive him, it should have happened months along the way, and not the following day.
8. Even in cases of gender-based violence, after the wife is assaulted, she will want the husband to be locked up in the first few days. It is only after a few weeks, with the intervention of relatives, that she may consider forgiving him and withdrawing the case from the Police. It would be extremely rare that a wife is panel-beaten today, and husband is locked up, then the following day, she desperately wants to have the husband released from custody and case dropped, to the extent of trying to bribe Police Officers. Therefore, the Kabwata case is indicative of the fact that the defilement and incest of the daughter was taking place with the full knowledge and approval of the three wives. Arresting and prosecuting the offenders is a simplistic approach to this issue. Government should take an interest to investigate why this is happening, so as to forestall future occurrences.
9. In Chewa, there’s a saying that “..tifuna chatsetsa dzaye, kuti njovu ityoke mnyanga..” Loosely translated, this means “… we want to know what caused the coconut to drop from the tree, for the elephant to break it’s tusk ..”. In other words, it is important for the Government to properly investigate the root causes of the current epidemic of defilement and incest cases, so that they can implement appropriate interventions.
10. In my considered view, the current penalties for defilement and incest are stiff enough. But why are they not able to discourage would-be offenders? I have heard of suggestions that defilement and incest offenders should be castrated. But l doubt that even such a punishment would arrest the problem of defilement. We may just end up with a society with a lot of men without penises. I think what is really needed are interventions that would bring about behavioral change. Interventions that would dispel the false prescriptions of Traditional Healers and their fake get-rich-quick schemes.
For example, we have television shows such as Mpali and Zuba, which are watched by a significant portion of our population. Government could use such platforms to achieve the desired behavioral change among the population, so as to reduce cases of defilement and incest. Of course there will still be exceptional cases of men who are driven to defilement because they fail to approach and convince a grown woman. In such cases, the Honorable Minister of Justice could always be called in to assist. Anyway, the Future is SET ✌️ ✌️ ✌️
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SET 05.04.2025