DUTY OF RETREAT – THE GARRY NKOMBO TALE
By Kellys Kaunda
In some US States, there’s a law called duty to retreat. It means, when you are under attack, if there are possible escape routes, use them as a way of de-escalating the situation. In other words, self-defense is not an automatic plea if it can be proved that there was enough room to just walk away.
Zambia doesn’t have such a law. Instead Section 17 of Chapter 87 which is the Penal Code provides for self-defense.
Unfortunately, self-defense hasn’t been helpful in instances of a political nature.
Often, if you are attacked by members and supporters of the ruling party or the police, if you stand your ground and launch a counter attack, you can rest assured that you are going to be charged with assault. The victim will become the villain.
So, you have three choices. You can hit back and face the inevitable – which is an assault charge or allow the perpetrators to beat you until either they are tired and satisfied or they maim you for life or kill you.
The third option is for you to run away if you can which may not be feasible sometimes because perpetrators would have planned and therefore knew the exact spot to attack you from.
In fair democratic systems, the video that showed the attack against Garry would have been enough to raise enough public sentiment in favor of Garry so that he would have gained the status of the victim. In such a jurisdiction, it would have been unthinkable that Garry would have been charged especially that the police were on hand and witnessed how the whole episode unfolded.
This is precisely what Ambassador Emmanuel Mwamba described as his experience. He said he was assaulted by law enforcement officers who he reported to the Police Complaints Commission backed by medical records obtained from UTH, a public health entity.
Alas, in a dramatic turnaround, the police charged him with assault!
In Zambia, the odds are stacked against you in such circumstances. And chances that you will spend time behind bars are very likely.
Such gross unfairness breaks the heart. In defense of one’s freedom, you end up seeking refuge in a foreign country when you are supposed to be at home doing what you do best – participating in public affairs, hanging out with friends and spending time with family.
Living in a foreign country under such circumstances is excruciatingly painful and lonely. It is never a pleasant experience. There is nothing more pleasant than home.
Maybe for those that have never spent extended periods of time away from home, it’s pleasant to live abroad. Don’t be fooled by skyscrapers and glittering neon lights in developed countries. That doesn’t mean the lives of the inhabitants of those cities equally glitter.
Beneath that architectural beauty lies millions of broken dreams, disillusioned souls and homesick brothers and sisters desirous to return home.