Dad had a long list of children outside marriage, Shikapwasha’s daughter tells court
DAUGHTER of late Lt General Ronnie Shikapwasha has told the Lusaka High Court that her father had a long list of children outside his infidelity-punctuated marriage to Jane Lusengo.
Vanessa Shikapwasha disclosed that Lusengo is her step mom as her real parents are the late former ZAF commander Lieutenant General Shikapwasha and Doreen Kabinga.
The 38-year old also refuted assertions by medical personnel that her father shot herself as she was ignorant about the his alleged statement regarding the incident.
In this matter 73- year old Lusengo is charged with murder.
It is alleged that Lusengo ended the retired soldier’s life on January 15, 2024 with a double barrel shotgun during a marital dispute.
During cross examination before judge Conceptor Chinyanwa Zulu, Vanessa said she discovered that Lt general Shikapwasha was her father at a tender age and she started living with the couple at the age of 16 few months before she got wedded.
She said she went back to her father’s house in Ibex Hill in 2018 after her husband’s demise and she later packed out to live on her own.
“I went back in 2022 when Milika told me mum (Lusengo) and dad were having problems,” she said.
When asked by defense lawyer Francis Mulenga jr if she was born to another woman during the subsistence of her father and Lusengo’s marriage, the witness confirmed.
When quizzed about the number of children that the former minister of home affairs had children outside marriage, Vanessa said they were more than five but could not mention them there and then as the list was too long.
Mulenga asked Vanessa if the general had committed adultery by having countless illegitimate offspring during the subsistence of his marriage to Lusengo, but deputy Chief State advocate Chipola Bako curtailed the witness from answering the question on reasons that she couldn’t tell how other children were born.
He said Vanessa could only speak to the shooting incident as a witness of fact and not to answer questions relating to her late father’s ‘infidelity’.
Bako’s objection to Mulenga’s line of inquiry was sustained by Judge Zulu.
Vanessa said general Shikapwasha and Lusengo started arguing in their old age and her father had evicted her from their matrimonial home on three occasions but would always bring her back whenever he sent her packing.
The 38-year old said after the shooting incident Lusengo did not scream neither was she unsettled.
“She wasn’t screaming after the shooting I could just hear her talking in the passage, she was not in distress. I ran after her because she took a quick walk right after we discussed. I had to catch her,” Vanessa said.
She confirmed that the lenje word ‘wanchaisha’ could mean causing someone to injure themselves.
When asked if she was aware that General Shikapwasha had told a physician that he had shot himself on the material day, Vanessa responded in the negative.
She said Lusengo was not part of the prayer session that was conducted at the crime scene.
“Mum was not praying with aunt Daka and myself she was pacing up and down in the bedroom,” Vanessa said.
When cross examined by Gilbert Lindani, Vanessa confirmed that the details she gave to the police and the court regarding the incident were at variance.
She conceded that the statement regarding the infidelity accusations made by her father before his death ‘Wabona Jane wanchaya abuhule bwako’ were not recorded in the police statement.
Lindani read out an excerpt of Mainasoko military Commandant Levy Muchemwa’s interview with the Zambia Daily Mail were the medical personnel disclosed that general Shikapwasha had told him that he pulled the trigger on himself.
“I asked him if he was attacked and he responded that his gun fired on him,” the excerpt read.
However Vanessa said she was not aware about her father’s explanation about the occurrence of shooting.
Vanessa maintained that Lusengo told her that she did not know whether she had shot her father or not when she asked her what transpired.
Cross examination continues on May 21.
By Mwaka Ndawa
Kalemba May 15, 2024.
Very unfortunate happening especially looking at the couple’s age .Who else was around at the time of shooting ?
And a Reverend for that matter. Clearly that was a troublesome relationship.
The general was very promiscuous hence the old lady finally shooting him. This is s straightforward case but machinations are being put in place to create doubt so that the old lady is found not guilty and doesn’t have to spend the rest of her life in prison.
Murder is murder