Village chicken night thief jailed 3 months

MULENGA MUSONDA writes THE Choma Magistrates Court slapped a 3 months jail term with hard labour on a blacksmith who went on rampage stealing people’s village chickens. In this case 21 years old Clifford Mweetwa of Choma’s Sikalongo area stood charged with two counts of Theft contrary to the laws of Zambia. Particulars of the offence in count one are that Mweetwa stole 3 Chickens valued at K180 the property of Alice Muchimba. In the second count, he was accused of stealing 1 chicken and 1 pair of slippers all valued at K85 the property of Sidney Mudenda. The thefts were said to have happened on 16 May 2020 in ChomaDistrict of Southern Province. When he appeared for plea before Senior Resident Magistrate IdahMupemo, the accused person admitted to all the counts and pleaded guilty. According to Facts stated by Public Prosecutor Catherine Sakala, the accused person was apprehended by the second complainant Sidney Mudenda after he followed footprint trails following the loss of his chicken the very night. When the trail led him to the accused house, he found two chickens still alive but unfortunately one was already nicely cooked in the pot. Upon his admission of the Facts as being true and correct, the Court found Mweetwa guilty and convicted him accordingly. Despite pleading guilty and crying to the Court that he be given a non-custodial sentence, Magistrate Mupemo slapped him with 3 months imprisonment term with hard labour in order to deter would be offenders as the offence is on the upswing. Mweetwa was informed of his right to appeal to the High Court within 14 days if he was not happy with the outcome. The Sun