By Kennedy Kaumba
MURURWANI – When I heard about passion killings, I asked myself what does this mean. Who is behind passion killings? Who are the victims and what steps should be taken to stop passion killings? I could not figure out answers to these questions as I had little knowledge about this societal vice.
When time passes by people keep on mentioning passion killings, innocent women, youth and children also lose their lives daily, and it is debated on national radio, television, news papers and magazines, as well as demonstrations by humble citizens campaigning and appealing to the perpetrators to stop this brutal practice. The pressure mounts on government and on every citizen, as such I became interested in becoming a part of this daily conversation, as my cousin a 24-year-old female became a victim last year.
Passion killing
Passion killing is defined as murder as a result of sudden anger or heartbreak, which means the perpetrator could have acted differently if they were not angry or heartbroken. This usually arises in common assault, assault by threat, assault with intent to cause grievous bodily harm, murder or attempted murder cases. Namibia is one of the countries in Africa with high rates of passion killing when we update ourselves with what is happening in our neighbouring countries such as South Africa, Zambia, Botswana, Angola and Zimbabwe by reading and listening to news on SABC, Botswana TV, Zambian MUVI TV with the core aim of finding out about passion killings and violence against women and children. And when we compare ourselves, the Land of the Brave, with our neighbours we find ourselves among the top with our tiny population.
A number of reasons have been advanced explaining the high incidence of passion killings in Namibia, including unequal power dynamics in relationships between men and women. Others are increasing poverty levels and youth unemployment, which have also been cited as contributing factors for the inter-generational dating as young girls trade sexual favours for a luxurious life, that includes expensive cars, mansions, and being loaded with cash at all times. Men are cultural providers for women and this creates dependency where women expect support financially from the household provider, without reference to financial standing. Some women are financially dependent on men throughout their academic careers and the provider in return expects pure love and respect. Once the relationship goes out of hands, it might sometimes lead to violence, injuries, murder or culpable homicide. The other factor is the so-called practice of living together which are relationships in which young girls and women stay with their boyfriends without parental consent. Several incidents of passion killings involved a number of young girls and women killed by lovers or husbands. Although men and boys are sometimes victims of passion killings, women and girls are the ones who mainly suffer the consequences of this type of gender-based violence.
Baby dumping
Babies are not garbage. Baby dumping is when a pair of irresponsible parents decide to just abandon their newborn baby and place them where they are not taken care of in an unfavourable condition, such as the dumpster abandoned places or even in front of someone else’s home. Dumping of a baby is considered a form of murder and the irresponsible parents will be punished and punished by God. It is also considered illegal in all of Namibia. The lives of innocent future leaders, caring souls, pastors, doctors, law-abiding citizens are being cut short, because of irresponsible parents without vision.
A baby embarks on a terrible journey of not being loved by the people who brought them into this world. In all cases dumpsters are female teenagers,but male teenagers are accomplices as well. Denying taking responsibility by some males before the baby is born is one of the contributing factors of baby dumping by females. Our government and other stakeholders have embarked on initiatives aimed at stopping violence against women. The constitution of the Republic of Namibia as per Chapter 15 Article 18 mandates the Namibian Police to preserve internal security and maintain law and order. Human dignity is one of the priorities of our independent State as it is stated in Article 8, respect for human dignity.
Kennedy Kaumba is a policeman at Mururwani and writes this opinion piece in his capacity as a Namibian citizen.