KANENE

By PERPETUAL SICHIKWENKWE-
INCARCERATED Lusaka based musician, Cliford Dimba, popularly known as ‘General’ Kanene has appealed to the Supreme Court against both his conviction and 18-year jail sentence for defilement.
Dimba, 27, was on Friday slapped with a jail sentence of 18 years with hard labour by Lusaka high court judge, Chalwe Mchenga for defiling a 14-year-old girl.
Mr Justice Mchenga sentenced Dimba after he confirmed his conviction by Lusaka magistrate Rodgers Kaoma who found him guilty of the offence.
He stated that Dimba’s defilement of the girl was premeditated, an action which resulted in him having unlawful carnal knowledge of the girl under the age of 16.
But Dimba has through one of his defence lawyers, Nicholas Chanda appealed against the conviction and sentence saying both Mr Justice Mchenga and Mr Kaoma erred in law and fact when they convicted and later sentenced his client.
Mr Chanda said it was wrong for the court to convict his client in an event that there was a lacuna of evidence in terms of lack of birth record of the girl.
“The learned trial magistrate in the court below as confirmed by the sentencing court both erred in law and fact when they convicted and later on confirmed the offence of defilement on the ground that there was a lacuna of evidence in terms of lack of birth record of the prosecution and/or failure to adduce in Magnetic Image Renaissance(RMI scan),” Mr Chanda stated.
He said that the court should not have sentenced Dimba on the basis that there was an enrolment register produced to court by the girl’s parents when it should have been the school authorities who should have done so.
Dimba of house number B/02 Msisi Township was charged with the defilement of the girl on January 31, 2012.
He was convicted by Mr Kaoma on February 4, 2014 after he was found guilty of the offence.