Murderer convicted of second offence

High Court of Malawi Judge Anabel Mtalimanja on Monday convicted Blessings Lifa, 38, of murdering motorcycle taxi operators (kabaza) in February 2020 in Biwi Township in Lilongwe.

The Ntcheu-based convict is accused of gruesome killing of three kabaza operators separately and burying them inside a fence of a newly-constructed house where he was working as a builder.

Lifa was tracked by a phone call that one of the deceased relatives made after they noticed that their relation had been missing for days.

A mobile phone network provider’s search for the phone location tracked down the convict’s place, which led to the exhumation of the dead body and discovery of two other bodies by the police.

However, the police could only identify two of the deceased as Alfred Khomani and Pillar Daniel and opened murder cases against the suspect.

In an interview after the conviction, senior State advocate Faith Msimuko-Lungu told The Nation that Lifa was last year convicted of the murder of Daniel and sentenced to 48 years imprisonment.

In court, the senior State advocate gave evidence against Lifa for the second count, including a medical post-mortem result which found that Khomani died of severe head injuries.

“Your worship, the medical postmortem examination report found that the deceased was found in decomposed state with multiple cuts around the head. It found that the cause of death was due to severe head injury,” she said.

Msimuko-Lungu also told the court that Lifa pleaded guilty to the charge in a police caution statement of which she read.

The suspect, who had both his legs and hands chained, pleaded guilty to the charge and was later convicted.

But defence lawyer Chifundo Jonas, from Legal Aid Bureau, said she expects to consider his conduct to plead guilty.

Mtalimanja asked the State and defence lawyers to submit all the necessary files by March 27 after which she will deliver her judgement.

In recent times, kabaza operators have come under attacks in the country.