A CONGOLESE e v a n g e l i s t who sexually assaulted and p r o p o s e d marriage to his 15-year-old daughter because it is allowed in their tradition, has been jailed for 16 years with hard labour. This is in a matter Kachinga Kabamba, 40, was charged with indecent assault. On November 14 last year around 23:00 hours, Kabamba called his daughter from her bedroom so that she could escort him to see a pastor near their home. He then kissed and touched her private parts.

The lower court heard that Kabamba forced his daughter to have sex with him because she reminded him of her mother he had divorced. He told her that since the mother was having an affair with another man back home in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), he needed a woman to be sleeping with.

But Kabamba denied sexually assaulting his daughter saying he only inserted fingers in his daughter’s private parts because he wanted to know if she was still a virgin. And the victim narrated how her father had sex with her against the order of nature. The girl told the court that her father said it was normal in the DRC for a father to marry his own daughter. She confided in her teacher, who later reported the matter to police. And the victim’s teacher told the court how the child bitterly wept as she explained what her father was doing to her at home.

In defence, Kabamba said in the DRC, it is not strange to kiss one’s daughter or touch her. When the matter came up before the Ndola High Court for sentencing, Kabamba’s lawyer asked the court for leniency because his client’s actions were strange before God and people.

However, Judge Yvone Chembe sentenced Kabamba to 16 years imprisonment with hard labour. “He took advantage of his own daughter to become his wife because she had separated from her mother. I find that aggravating, shameful, evil and sinful.