By Darious Kapembwa
SLAIN jerabo Richard Chileshe popularly known as Chile 1’s family has denied allegations by his eldest son Nathan that the family wants to deprive children of their property.
Chile 1, allegedly shot dead by his wife Ann Monta in the early hours of last Saturday after a brawl, was buried at the Nkana Memorial Park on Wednesday.
Nathan 21, narrated to an online publication Kalemba, that his late father’s family had since locked the bedroom where his father kept title deeds and documentation to his several properties dotted around the Copperbelt in a bid to deny the children access to them.
He further alleged that the family held a meeting hours after his father’s burial where it was suspected that they were sharing property without the children’s involvement.
But family spokesperson Kelvin Tembo said there was no truth in Nathan’s allegations because the family meeting that was held a day after burial was for the purpose of sending several mourners who had travelled for the funeral back to the village to lessen expenses because there were too many of them who had travelled and keeping them for long was going to be expensive.
Asked if it was true that the children were locked out of the bedroom, Tembo disclosed that the bedroom still remained locked at the instructions of the police because it is a crime scene under investigation.
He suspected that Nathan was being misinformed by someone from his mother’s side to say what he was saying.
Chile 1 has left behind seven children from four different women.
“Look, that meeting was about sending people back to the villages because we had a lot of family members that had travelled so it was going to be expensive to keep them for a long time. The situation is far from what the boy is saying. Definitely someone is misleading him,” Tembo said. “The bedroom is locked because the police have given instructions that no one opens it. It is a crime scene under investigation. So they don’t want anything or anyone to jeopardise their investigations. You know in our culture there is Isambo lyamfwa. Even that hasn’t happened because the bedroom is locked. Someone is whispering wrong things to the boy. It is very embarrassing to the family,” he said.
Asked if he had spoken to Nathan since he made the allegations, Tembo said he had sent for Nathan’s mother who was Chile 1’s first wife because he didn’t want to speak to the former alone.
“The last time somebody spoke to him, he was very rude. So I have sent someone to bring the mother along. I want to talk sense in him through the mother,” Tembo said.
Nathan and another 12-year-old were born from the first wife, while two other children were born from Chile’s two other girlfriends plus three from his last wife Annie who is the known legal wife.
“The youngest child is two and half. Even if you share property, what do you give her? I have told the family that no one touches anything. Actually, our line of thought is to create a Trust in which to put everything for the children so that when they grow up, they will manage things on their own. As things stand its only Nathan who is old enough to make sound decisions,” said Tembo. “But me I am thinking about the next 15-18 years for these younger ones. I have got children as well. I wouldn’t love them to suffer. So why should I make others suffer? My thinking right now is how will the children live in the next 15 years, 18 years from now. Their education and so on…the woman in custody is legally the recognised wife. What if witnesses say something else in investigations and she comes out and finds that property has been shared? She will sue all of us. So we have looked at all that. It’s quite embarrassing.”