K100,000 for burning kids’ fingers

A 31-year-old woman was on Monday fined K100,000 for burning fingers of her sister’s kids in Neno district.

According to the Malawi Police Service, the woman is Ruth Khumulike of Chiyembekezo village in the area of Traditional Authority Nsamala in Neno district.

A police statement which has been made available to Malawi24 shows that in February, 2017, the convict burned the hands of her sister’s son and daughter aged 7 and 8 respectively as punishment for their tendency of stealing at home.

Later the children were discovered with burns on their hands by their Standard 2 teacher at Ligowe primary school.

When asked as to what happened to them, they narrated the whole story to their teacher who later reported the matter to relevant authorities in the area.

The issue was then reported to police and officers arrested the woman.

In court the woman admitted physically assaulting the kids and she was convicted.

In her mitigation, the convict told the court to consider her since she takes care of three children including one who is 9-months-old.

When passing the sentence, his worship Daniel Dzowela of Neno second grade magistrate court told the court that he will not give the woman a custodial sentence but will fine her.

He said that he did so because of the woman’s mitigating factor that she was nursing a 9-month-old kid.

However, if the woman fails to pay the fine she will be imprisoned for a year.