Kasungu registers sharp increase in defilement cases
Minister of Gender, Children, Disability and Social Welfare Patricia Kaliati has expressed shock over increased defilement cases in Kasungu District.
This follows revelations that the district now records a minimum of 12 such cases a month from an average of one per month last year.
The cases are said to scale up during the harvesting season as unscrupulous men take advantage of widespread poverty in communities to defile children.
Confirming the development in an interview on Wednesday, Kasungu Police spokesperson Edwin Kaunda attributed the rise in defilement cases in the district to cultural misconceptions.
Said Kaunda, “We hear traditional healers are allegedly encouraging their clients to sleep with minors as a ritual, to be redeemed from curses or to accumulate wealth, which is very unfortunate.”
But when brought to her attention, Kaliati tried to dig out some positives from the development which she described as shocking.
Said Kaliati: “We can however, draw some positives from the Kasungu situation, in that communities are now reporting defilement cases, departing from the culture of silence that used to engulf such incidents.”
The minister said civic-education, apart from handing down stiffer penalties to perpetrators; remain key to scaling down the malpractice in the country.
