SPEAK OUT ON GENDER BASED VIOLENCE with DORIS KASOTE
WHEN I read about two brothers that killed their mother and later buried her body, it sent a chill down my spine. As though that was not enough, the two brothers further attacked their father by stabbing him which landed the man into the intensive care unit of Kitwe Central Hospital.
My thoughts went astray, wondering and asking why and how such a gruesome act could happen? Worse still the alleged perpetrators and the victims were from the same family. I asked myself why sons should turn against their own parents who gave them life.
Even as I pondered, I could not find an answer, because it all just did not add up.
It is normal that as children grow older, they do not always agree with their parents but that should not drive them to be responsible for such a gruesome murder.
For those, who have no clue what I am talking about; let me let you in on what happened last Saturday, according to media reports.
Police arrested two siblings of Kitwe’s Mine township for allegedly murdering their 46- year-old mother after a family dispute and buried her body in the Chichele forest on the Kitwe Ndola carriage way.
Untrue as it may sound but Police spokesperson Charity Chanda confirmed that the incident happened last Saturday around 03 00 hours at house number 33.
The woman who was allegedly killed by the two sons is Ethel Gondwe, a teacher at one of the schools in Kitwe while the sons have been identified as Emmanuel Katongo, 23, and Ongani Katongo, 18.
Ms Chanda said after allegedly attacking and murdering Ms Gondwe, Emmanuel and Ongani turned on their father, Emmanuel Katongo, 47, and stabbed him with an unknown object in the neck.
After being killed by her own flesh and blood, Ms Gondwe was buried in a forest.
Emmanuel and Ongani led the police to where they buried their mother and according to their statement; they did what they did following a dispute after a drinking dispute.
One would expect sons to hold their mother dear because the bond that a woman has with her children starts when she is pregnant.
If one would turn back the clock and if given an opportunity, certain paths in our lives would be avoided at all costs.
Little did Ms Gondwe know that her own children would end her life?
If Ms Gondwe knew that her own children would kill her, she would probably not even have had them.
However, no parent ever anticipates that their own children would turn against them to a point of killing them and bury them in a forest.
What one would expect as a parent is the children that you bring into this world will one day accord you a dignified bury rather than dump you in a forest.
My mind keeps wondering just how and why two sons would kill their own mother and stab, their father to warrant him to end up in Intensive Care Unit?
No matter how much I wonder and ponder about it, I don’t seem to get an answer.
The best I can do is wait to hear what dispute Emmanuel and Ongani had with their parents to have turned violent against them.
Whatever the reason, it is unacceptable. The best I can do right now is leaving it to the Police to handle the case and hope answers will come out of it, sad as it may be, instead of cracking my head.