The Ndola High Court has sentenced a man of Mpongwe to 35 years imprisonment with hard labour for axing his wife to death while she was sleeping.
Maxwell Kafwala was charged with murder for killing Miriam Chisanga after he found her dancing suggestively with two men at a bar. On May 15, 2017, Ms Chisanga threatened to leave her husband after he asked her to stop interacting with her sister-in-marriage, who he accused of being a bad influence.

He also got jealous after he found her dancing with men at a bar. While the couple was sleeping, Kafwala woke up, got an axe and chopped his wife’s neck. In defence, Kafwala denied committing the offence, stating that he only stopped his wife from leaving him after she insisted on going to her parents’ home.

Kafwala also told the court that a week before his wife died, he found her dancing with two men, one holding her waist from behind and the other from the front. “I stood there and watched them, I later started pulling her off. My wife had put her head on one of the men’s chest and they were holding each other tightly while dancing.

“I pulled her outside the bar and I told her that I did not like the habit of her going to the bar with her sister-in-marriage,” he said.
Kafwala said on the day his wife died, around 03:00 hours, he left home to take his child to his relatives because he knew that his wife had gone to her parents’ home.

And the court established that on the material day around 06:00 hours, Ms Chisanga’s body was found in a pool of blood in the matrimonial home.
Judge Mary Mulanda dismissed Kafwala’s claims and concluded that he was the one who killed his wife because of jealousy and did not want her to leave.

“I find that she did not leave the house that night. And if she did not leave home, the question is who killed her? The position of her body showed that she was killed while she was sleeping,” she said.

Judge Mulanda said the only inference she drew was that Kafwala murdered his wife while she was sleeping and had malice aforethought.
She found him guilty and convicted him of murder because the State proved the case beyond reasonable doubt.

“I have taken into consideration the circumstances that Kafwala was jealous after finding his wife dancing with two men, and her intentions to leave him,” Judge Mulanda said. She sentenced Kafwala to 35 years imprisonment with hard labour. Judge Mulanda described the offence and manner in which it