Iuze Mukube
A resident of the DRC informal settlement in Otjiwarongo, has been found guilty of murdering his girlfriend by frenziedly stabbing her at least 51 times with a knife on 13 February 2022.
Lolo Kambwela was convicted in the Windhoek High Court for murder and attempting to defeat or obstruct the course of justice in relation to the death of Nghishima Haufiku.
The State alleged that the accused went to the deceased’s house, brutally stabbed her, locked her body inside the shack, threw away the house keys and discarded the knife that he used to stab Haufiku, with the intent to evade detection of the crime.
Prior to the conviction, Kambwela pleaded not guilty to both charges, bringing his own version of events.
The accused testified he made a surprise visit to Haufiku’s house on the day of the incident and, upon entering, found an unknown man inside, the same man his girlfriend had allegedly previously said was bothering her and insisting on being her boyfriend.
Kambwela stated this man, who later came to be identified as Mr Iipinge in court, assaulted Haufiku and then attacked him when he tried to help her.
He added that he ran away from the shack to seek help from a neighbour, then went to his relative’s house to further ask for assistance and finally proceeded to the police station to report that someone had assaulted his girlfriend.
Judge Claudia Claasen, who presided over the matter, expressed doubt over his version, ruling that all circumstantial evidence proved beyond a reasonable doubt that Kambwela was the last person to have been with the deceased.
She added that Kambwela killed the deceased and, on two occasions, voluntarily admitted that he assaulted his girlfriend, first to a relative and later to a police officer on duty on the day of the incident.
In considering the first instance, it is significant that the testimony came from the accused’s relative, who stated that the accused asked him to check on his girlfriend because he had stabbed her.
These, Claasen stated, were spontaneous, unsolicited admissions and constituted admissible evidence before the court.
Additionally, during cross-examination, the credibility of the accused’s version that there was someone on the premises at all material times was dented.
Claasen stated that the accused’s version that he did not stab and kill the deceased is not reasonably possible true, but that it is also false beyond any doubt.
All the circumstantial evidence proved, beyond reasonable doubt, that the accused was the last person to have been with the deceased and that he is the one who stabbed her, locked the shack and discarded the key and the knife.
Hence, she convicted him for murder with direct intent, read with the provisions of the Combating of Domestic Violence Act of 2003.
Additionally, a guilty verdict was handed down on the charge of attempting to defeat or obstruct the course of justice.
What is worse is that in the accused’s version, he left the deceased with the violent unidentified man, who had just assaulted the deceased and himself.
Claasen found it utterly far-fetched that he would have abandoned his girlfriend without any help to fend off the aggressor on the premises, that it is too fanciful to be true.
Besides, the accused also introduced a neighbour into the mix, to whom he ostensibly went and shared that the deceased told him about her new suitor. In the accused’s version, the suitor was on the premises at that material moment.
Claasen stated that it is peculiar that the said neighbour did not come forward to tell the court about the presence of “Mr Iipinge” on the premises that day.
Moreover, the accused has voluntarily divulged on two occasions that he assaulted his girlfriend. Claasen said that the observations in the post-mortem report proved that the accused stabbed the deceased in her neck, chest, back, shoulders, arms, forearms, wrists, hands and thigh. He did so, not once or twice, but 51 times in total.
Additionally, a vest worn by the deceased at the time confirmed that Kambwela was on a stabbing spree, as there were 35 holes in that vest.
A doctor also testified that it was a sharp object with a metal blade or a ‘knife-like’ sharp pointed object, which tied in with the evidence by the accused’s relative that the accused told him that he stabbed his girlfriend with a knife.
Claasen stated that it left no doubt in her mind that when the accused stabbed Haufiku that many times, he had the direct intention to kill her.
The State is represented by Anna Amukugo, and Kambwela by Kenneth Siambago.