Malawi teen girl held for baby dumping
Police at Kafukule in Mzimba district have arrested a 15 year old girl for concealing the birth of her baby girl and then dumping it.
According to police the suspect Tawonga Chilinda was married off to a 23 year old man Justice Msowoya, 23, of Mandanyera village Traditional Mtwalo in the district when she was 14 years last year but got divorced in May the same year.
“The suspect returned to her parents’ home with the pregnancy but no one knew and on January 1, this year, she secretly delivered and went to a nearby stream where she dumped her baby,” Mzimba Police Publicist Sergeant Gift Nyirongo said.
Nyirongo said the baby was discovered when one of the villagers went to her garden which iscloser to the stream where she saw the body of the dead baby floating.
“Later, she reported the matter to the village headman who further reported the matter to Kafukule Police Post. The suspect was arrested the same day and was taken to Kafukule Rural Hospital where they confirmed that she had recently given birth.” he said.
The suspect has been already charged with the offence concealing the birth of child contrary to section 232 of the Penal Code which attracts a maximum penalty of 2 years imprisonment with hard labour and she will appear in the court soon to answer her charge.
Mzimba is one of the district in country where cases of concealing birth of a child and abortion are very common because a lot of men migrate to South Africa to look for greener pasture where they stay for along time without coming back home.
Therefore, in order to fulfill their conjugal rights, wives opt to have affairs with other men and as a result they get pregnancies.
In fear of their husbands and to protect their marriages, they decide to abort or conceal the birth of their children.
“We are therefore advising men who migrate to South Africa to be going together with their wives in order to reduce such kind of offences,” police spokesman said.
The suspect hails from Kapinduli Khonje village in the area of Traditional Authority Chindi in the district.
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