• MANY women have been attacked and badly assaulted by rapists.

By POTIPHER TEMBO –
MARY Mwape (not real name) is a victim of rape. She was gang raped in 2013 when she was walking back to her matrimonial home in Ndola’s Chifubu Township after visiting her relatives in Kawama Township late in the night.
Two years after that rape incident, Mary has remained traumatised and  to make things worse, she has become a victim of scorn by her husband who has failed to accept that she was attacked and forced into sex by four men who had waylaid her as she was going home.
“My husband’s attitude has never been the same after I was raped in 2013. Despite him knowing what had happened to me, he has never been happy with me and each time we differ, he brings the aspect of me having been raped and I am no longer the woman he loved so much,” explained Mary.
There are so many women who have been victims of rape and whose husbands have failed to accept that their spouses are not to blame for what happened.
Many women have been attacked and badly assaulted by rapists. In some instances, some women have been killed by the assailants who thought they would be identified by their victims.
While men experience anguish when their wife are raped, the women themselves are greatly distressed because they are subjected to total shame and disgrace which leaves an indelible mark in their lives.
In July this year, a rapist was arrested from a hospital bed at Mansa General Hospital where he went to seek treatment after part of his tongue was bitten off by a gang rape victim.
Three men related to the 20-year-old rape victim’s husband took turns in raping her.
The woman from Namwandwe area said during a family gathering that the three men met her when she was on her way home, the men were coming from a bar.
“They stooped me calling me mulamu, mulamu (sister-in-law) and offered to escort me, but on the way they forced me to a nearby sand pit where they took turns to rape me,” she explained.
The woman revealed that the third attacker attempted to kiss her and she bit off his tongue. She was left naked at the crime scene and only gained conscious in the early hours of the following day.
For some time now, cases of rape have been rising steadily and this has been a source of worry not only to the victims, but even to relatives and friends who have appealed to the Government to stiffen the punishment on the perpetrators.
Though the majority of rape victims are those who are attacked when they are walking to their destinations unaccompanied at night, there have been many who have been raped at their homes where they are supposed to be safe.
Despite the Government doing all it could in a bid to curb defilement and rape cases, the scourge continues  unabated.
Just this year alone  many cases of rape have been reported to the police across the country. Undoubtedly, there have been other defilement and rape cases which have not been reported either because the victims knew the perpetrators who could even have been their friends or relatives and they could not report them for fear of being embarrassed.
In many instances, the Government, through the Victim Support Unit (VSU) has implored victims of defilement and rape to report the cases but the response has not been encouraging resulting in many offenders going scot free.
Despite the fact that many women who are raped are those who are unaccompanied, especially when coming from drinking sprees, there have been many instances where women, especially the aged and young girls were attacked and raped  at home .
According to some findings, many old women and girls who  are victims of rape and defilement at their homes have some kind of relationship with the perpetrators who are usually strong young men who know their victims very well.
At times, defilers and rapists have been known to be people who take aphrodisiacs or sex boosters commonly known as umutototo and they target young girls and old people who cannot defend themselves .
In January this year, a 105- year -old woman died after she was allegedly raped by her 29-year old grandson in Chisamba in Central Province.
The incident happened after the young man allegedly got aroused after taking an overdose of aphrodisiacs.
The young man was alleged to have forced himself on his great grand mother at her home in Lupiya village.
Then Central Province police chief, Standwell Lungu disclosed that the body of the deceased was discovered by her grand daughter and that examinations revealed that the old woman had no physical injuries but had white staff on her private parts.
Mr Lungu said that the suspect who had just returned home from a drinking spree was alleged to have taken the sex boosters and that upon arrival at home, he forced himself on the deceased old woman.
Within a few days in Monze, the same month, another woman, aged 80, was raped by a 27-year-old grandson. The young man  was later arrested by the police.
Sothern Province police chief, Mary Chikwanda said the young man allegedly entered in his grand mother’s house at night and raped her.
In February this year, the Chingola Magistrates’ Court convicted a 32-year-old man for raping a 79-year-old woman in the presence of her husband.
Still in February this year in Mbala district, Northern Province, a 90-year-old dumb woman was allegedly repeatedly raped by a 20-year-old man.
Northern Province deputy commissioner of police, Alfred Nawa said the young man had been raping the old woman for some time.
According to Mr Nawa, the young man had been pouncing on the old woman since early February this year and was only caught in the act around 02.00 hours that day.
The woman used to spend the nights in a kitchen away from the main house and the suspect took advantage of this to rape her.
Mr Nawa said the incident only came to light when the old woman tried to explain the matter to her 22-year-old granddaughter who later reported this to the elders in the neighborhood.
The elders tried to apprehend the man, but he overpowered them and fled.
In October last year, a 27-year-old man of Serenje District in Central Province was arrested for attempting to rape his 57-year-old grand mother.
The grand mother was nursing severe burns on her buttocks in the Serenje district hospital after her grand son pushed her on the brazier after he failed to rape her.
In November the same year, an ex-convict in Mazabuka raped a 73-year-old woman.
While many elderly women were victims of rape, man young women and girls are also victims.
A 20-year-old young woman of Chikola Township in Chingola was recently raped by two unidentified men who pounced on her as she was retuning from the market during late hours.
The assailants first beat up the victim severely before raping her.
Copperbelt deputy police Chief Byemba Musole said the woman was on her way home when the assailants pounced on her.
“The victim tried to flee but she was over powered by the two men who first beat her before taking turns in raping her,” said Mr Musole.
He urged women to avoid the habit of moving unaccompanied in the night because this exposed them to unnecessary attacks.
A week earlier, a teenager of Kaputa District in the Northern Province who was stumbling home in a drunken stupor was raped by two men.
Mr Nawa said the girl was attacked around midnight as she made her way home near Kaputa Primary school grounds.
It was suspected she could have been trailed from the drinking place by her assailants.
Mr Nawa cautioned women to avoid  placing themselves in vulnerable situations by drinking responsibly and avoiding lone late night movements.
On the day the Kaputa woman was raped, another woman of Namwala District in Southern Province was raped in a lodge by a man who later made off with her K150 cash.
In the same Province, five men of Nansingo attempted to gang rape a woman of Air Strip area but the woman struggled with the men and in the process sustained bruises but she overpowered the men who were later nabbed by the police.
However, many young women who patronise bars and other drinking places have been attacked and raped by men they were drinking with.
A case in point was in Kitwe where in July last year a 27-year-old woman was gang raped by three men after a drinking spree at a night club in Chimwemwe Township.
The woman was accused around midnight of having stolen a cell phone by the gang that later dragged her outside the night club and she was taken behind one of the buildings where she was stripped naked and the men took turns in raping her.
Another 21-year-old woman of Kitwe was in August last year raped at a lodge by a worker after she fell asleep in a drunken stupor during a drinking spree.
The woman was raped after drinking her head off and fell asleep in the dining room where a worker took advantage of her helpless position to strike.
In September last year, another 28-year-old woman of Mushili-Kansengu Township in Ndola was allegedly raped by a man who gave her a lift after attending a braii.
Explaining her ordeal, the victim said she was given a lift by the suspect who took her in the bush and raped her and dumped her there.
The same month, a 22-year-old woman of Kitwe was gang raped by six men after another drinking binge.
She was dragged into an unfinished building where she was gang raped.
In February this year, the Kitwe High Court imposed a 20-year jail sentence with hard labor on a 25-year man of St Antony Township in Kitwe for rape.
High Court Judge, Isaac Kamwendo, jailed Chama Mwila after upholding his conviction by the subordinate court.
Mwila broke into an old woman’s house and raped her.
In another incident, a police officer in Kabwe  in February this year went in hiding but was arrested after allegedly raping a woman who was in custody at Kasanda Police while in May, a Mansa Pastor was sentenced to 20 years in prison for raping a 17-year-old girl who was taken to him for prayers after she suffered an epileptic attack.
The girl was taken to him for prayers but the pastor took advantage of her state and forced himself on her.
High Court Judge, Charles Chanda, sitting in Mansa, convicted Julius Kabaso, 40, of Jesus is Alive Ministries.
Many other defilers and rapists have been jailed after being found guilty of the offences.
Despite the long sentences and stiff punishment meted out to the perpetrators, rape and defilement cases have continued to escalate at alarming proportions.
As the people who are mainly the victims of rape, they should try to avoid moving unaccompanied while the old women who are attacked in their homes should not be left. These measures would surely reduce the rape cases which are rising steadily.