Loveness Mwale, wife of Edwin Kabasiya, the police officer who allegedly shot and killed his colleague, was on Wednesday night brought back to Lusaka from Mongu, and has reunited with her family. Police officers picked up Ms Mwale last week to help them with investigations on the whereabouts of constable Kabasiya, who has been on the run after shooting and killing his colleague, Lennox Kapila, after the two quarrelled.
Ms Mwale could not hide her excitement although she complained of feeling weak and dehydrated.

She told the author that she was happy to see her baby and the entire family. “I have been sleeping on the floor in a police cell from the time I was taken to Mongu. I was sharing a cell with accused persons,” she said. Ms Mwale narrated that she reached Mongu in the early hours of Sunday and was taken to one of the police stations where she was put in a cell with accused persons.

Police officers then searched for constable Kabasiya’s mother whom they found at a church. She said her mother-in-law and her husband’s siblings were bundled into a police vehicle and taken to Kalabo district in search of the fugitive officer. Ms Mwale, however, said that the search was futile because Kabasiya has allegedly not set foot in his village in Kalabo from the time he ran away.

She, however, said that despite being kept in a police cell, and denying her access to her family and her freedom to socialise curtailed, the treatment was not harsh. Ms Mwale said that the only time she was beaten was when she was apprehended and taken to Chelston Police Station. She said the police accused her of hiding her husband.

Ms Mwale denied having been in contact with her husband from the time the incident happened. She, however, complained that she was not