Malawi Soldier impregnates 13 yr old

In Malawi, defilement cases are the order of the day. It is however saddening to find that those who are supposed to protect the girl child are the ones defiling them. Fathers, teachers, police and even the military officers are implicated in such cases.

Below is just an example. I write the story which was published on my company's online publication-Zodiak Online.

Soldier Blows up girl, 13
.................
A Malawi Defense Force corporal is yet to be tried in a formal court of law, nine months after he allegedly raped and impregnated a thirteen year old girl.She is now a mother of a baby boy.

The girl, who delivered the baby boy on Friday August 5, claims that the corporal raped her and warned her she would be killed if she disclosed what had happened in the corporal bedroom that day.

The corporal is a married soldier and lives in Kamuzu Barracks Second Battallion.

MDF Deputy Spokesperson Major Francis Kakhuta Banda says his office is aware of the matter but the army has been left at a loss because relations of the girl demanded the withdrawal of the matter from the military courts where it was.
The girl was born to a poor family in Ntcheu district to a blind mother. To date, this girl whom we shall name, Abigail (to try protect her identity), does not know her father.

Due to poverty levels she has been subjected to since birth, Abigail, did not go to school until 2008 when a certain family offered to take care of her at Kamuzu Barracks in Lilongwe.

She was enrolled at Kamuzu Barracks Primary school but little did she know that this would not last.
When she was in standard two, the inevitable happened.

“Mr Chaputula called me, saying his wife is sick and wanted me to do something for her. He told me to go to the sitting room, then the bedroom but I refused. He then pushed me into the bedroom, removed my underwear and raped me,” claimed Abigail.

After the incident, the girl was too scared to report the matter as the alleged rapist is said to have threatened to kill her.
As a child, Abigail went on with her usual day to day activities, going to school and playing after school. However, her teachers noticed some physical changes in her:

“When I went to school, the teachers noticed some physical changes in me. They took me to hospital and I tested positive for pregnancy.”

The girl born to a blind mother in Ntcheu

She adds:

“I was in the sixth month. All this while, I didn’t know I was pregnant, I was just playing, I didn’t know it was pregnancy,” Abigail said.

The Malawi defense force has since acknowledged receiving a complaint against one of its officers.

MDF deputy spokesperson Major Francis Kakhuta told ZBS online

“I can confirm that we are aware of the matter. The soldier was arrested, charged and appeared before his officer commanding.”

He however said MDF cannot do anything on the matter as the girls relations asked that the matter be handled by a civilian court.

“From the time the relatives made this request, the soldier was taken out of the guardroom because to us the matter is in court and so he is not guilty until proven otherwise,” explained Major Banda.

On Friday last week, the thirteen year old girl delivered a baby boy. As she spoke to ZBS on Thursday at Bwaila Hospital in Malawi's capital Lilongwe, Abigail was close to tears explaining how she had wished she only knew how to read and write, a dream she said is now shattered.

Well wishers provided her with some clothes for the baby, but Abigail said she does not know where she will get support for the baby as her alleged rapist goes on with his normal life.

As she parts ways with ZBS on that Thursday, some women scornfully looked at her, apparently wondering how a girl so young could get pregnant.

Little did they know the predicament the girl was in, was not of her own making.