By SYLVIA MWEETWA –

A TWO–YEAR-OLD baby boy has died while his 26-year-old mother is battling for her life in Kabwe General Hospital after allegedly drinking some liquid pesticide, Central Province Commissioner of Police Lombe Kamukoshi has said.
Ms Kamukoshi identified the woman of Kamuchanga Township, who is also four months pregnant, as Maureen Simwanza.
She said the boy died on the way to the hospital while two of his siblings aged six and 16 were treated and discharged after consuming the pesticide.
Ms Kamukoshi, who confirmed the development yesterday in an interview, said  preliminary  investigations  indicated  that  the  woman  had earlier differed with  her  husband  before  the  incident happened.
The four were later found lying unconscious in the house.
She said the two-year-old boy was pronounced dead on arrival at Kabwe General Hospital on Tuesday afternoon.
“All I can say is that we are waiting for her to recover to understand what exactly happened  but further investigations  also show  that  the  woman  was seen  buying  some doom (pesticide) before the incident,” Ms Kamukoshi said.
She said police were investigating the matter and could not give further details while health personnel said the condition of the woman had stabilised but she was still under observation.
Meanwhile, investigations into a case in which a two-and-eight-month-old girl was allegedly defiled before she was strangled in Chibombo District have intensified.
According to police, the girl was defiled before she was brutally killed and dumped 200 metres from her mother’s home.
A postmortem conducted on the girl indicated that she was defiled before she was strangled and that she sustained cuts on her private parts and forehead in an incident, which happened at Chimpebele Village on Monday last week.
Ms Kamukoshi said investigations had intensified and was confident those involved would be brought to book.
An unknown person sneaked into their house as the mother was preparing a meal outside with her sister while three of her siblings were also in the house.
It was, however, later discovered that the youngest child was missing.