In March 2022, Samuel Phinifolo Tembo was a father of five. By the evening of March 3, he was a father of one.
In a single afternoon, four of his children—Precious, 15, Pilirani, 11, Jammah, eight, and Kamma, five— drowned together in an unenclosed borrow pit at Thikiti Village, Traditional Authority Ndamera in Nsanje District.
For four years, Tembo and his wife carried not only grief, but ridicule from relatives and neighbours as their compensation claim dragged through the courts.
That ended on Tuesday with a High Court order of assessment on damages, following a ruling delivered on June 19 2026. The court awarded the family K237 million and brought what Tembo called “peace, finally”.
Tembo was at the market selling meat when his colleague, Patrick Flaye, called him home.
“It was a normal day,” he recalled in a telephone interview on Wednesday. “I left home early in the morning as usual and sometime in the afternoon Flaye called me that I should rush home. I had no idea what had happened.”
At home, he was told to go to the borrow pit. Community members were already searching inside. One child was found unresponsive. The others were recovered later. All four were dead.
“That’s how all my four children perished. Just like that,” said Tembo, his voice breaking. “Since then, my wife and I have been traumatised and we have had to live with the trauma the past four years.”
Days later, he sued China Railway No. 20 Bureau Group Corporation, CR20, for negligence.
The Chinese firm was contracted by government to construct the Nsanje-Marka road and was operating borrow pits along the route, including the one at Thikiti.
Court documents Nation on Sunday has seen show the pit was unenclosed, unprotected, unguarded and had no physical demarcation.
In defence, CR20’s earthworks supervisor Daniel Simbi told the court the site had been cordoned off with yellow tape and warning notices in English and Sena.
Under cross-examination, he admitted there was no documentary evidence and that a social and environmental report had not been tendered. He also said two guards were posted, but neither testified.
Former Nsanje District Commissioner Dr Medson Matchaya told the court he had inspected the site and found CR20 had failed to secure the pit despite several warnings from his office.
Delivering judgment, High Court Judge Allans Muhome said by creating and operating the pit, CR20 owed the community a duty of care that was breached.
“The evidence from all the claimant’s witnesses is that the borrow pit had no fencing, barriers, warning signs or any form of physical demarcation. This court finds the same more probable than the evidence of the defendant,” Muhome ruled.
“It stands that a reasonable contractor would not have left the borrow pit in such a hazardous state,” he said.
The judge apportioned 10 percent contributory negligence to Precious, Pilirani and Jammah, saying children aged 15, 11 and 8 were “old enough to know the dangers”, unlike five-year-old Kamma.
The court awarded Tembo K237.3 million as follows:
- K37 million for loss of expectation of life
- K60 million as exemplary and aggravated damages
- K134.7 million for loss of dependency
- K5 million for counseling
- K615 400 as special damages
“The money can’t replace my children,” Tembo said. “But I will honour them by constructing tombstones. That will give me peace, finally, because I will know they are at [peace].”
In 2023, while the case was ongoing, Tembo’s wife gave birth to another child.
“The birth of the child didn’t replace my other four children, but it gave us hope to keep moving forward,” he said. “It was a blessing.”
Tembo’s lawyer, Shadreck Mhango, said the judgment was significant.
“The verdict from the case is very crucial as it sends a strong warning to construction companies to exercise duty of care and avoid causing harm to the communities in their operating sites,” he said.
CR20’s lawyer, Chancy Gondwe, could not be reached for comment.
