WINDHOEK – The 4-year-old toddler who died in the Wanaheda Police Station holding cells should never have been in the police holding cells in the first place, according to the Executive Director of Women’s Action for Development (WAD), Veronica de Klerk.
“Such children should immediately be referred to a children’s home or a women and child protection unit, which falls directly under the jurisdiction of the police. The prison is no place for a child of that age. To crown it all, it is a violation of the Constitution which states in Chapter 15, paragraph 5 that ‘no law authorising preventive detention shall permit children under the age of 16 to be detained,” De Klerk said expressing her indignation to New Era yesterday.
Deputy Commissioner Edwin Kanguatjivi of Nampol, yesterday said the police have now made arrangements that toddlers no longer be kept with their mothers in police holding cells. He however declined to answer New Era’s questions about of why the toddler was in the police holding cells in the first place, saying a statement to clarify the issue would be issued today.
Meanwhile the chairperson of the National Council, Margret Mensah-Williams, also joined the fray of growing public anger over the incident, saying the killing of a toddler in the police holding cells ignited anger and the nation would need time to heal and counselling to overcome its anger. “Imagine a mother looking at another mother’s child in this country taking that poor child and beating that child’s head on the floor in the cell. It is gruesome, it is unacceptable. I’m asking myself what is wrong in the life of that person, especially a mother. What she did is gruesome. When I looked at the lady’s body language I saw no remorse, unfortunately. Her face was just… no emotions,” she told reporters yesterday. According to police reports a fight erupted between two female trial-awaiting prisoners in the Wanaheda Police Station holding cells on Thursday last week. Both women have been arrested for shoplifting, the mother of the toddler had failed to post N$500 bail and was in custody with her child, while the other woman had been denied bail since she is also facing a charge of assault. Police details were sketchy besides establishing that during the fight between 14h00 and 15h00 on that day, the other woman smashed the toddler’s head on the concrete floor twice, in apparent retaliation.
The toddler sustained serious head injuries and succumbed to the injuries in hospital later that same day. The woman accused of killing the child made another court appearance in court yesterday. “What happened is to say the least shocking, a social disgrace and it stems from gross negligence on the part of the police or ignorance on the part of the police,” De Klerk said, adding that the police should undergo serious training on the contents of the constitution, as well as training in gender-related laws such as the Child Maintenance Act, the Combating of Gender-based Violence Act and the Rape Act.
By Alvine Kapitako