The Kasama High Court has placed a 22-year-old woman of Chief Chipalo\u2019s chiefdom in Luwingu District on her defense, after the State established a prima facie case, in a matter where she stands accused of murdering her 42-year-old boyfriend.<\/p>\n
This is in a case in which Taonga Kaonga is charged with one count of murder contrary to Section 200 of the Penal Code, Chapter 87 of the Laws of Zambia.<\/p>\n
Facts before the court are that on June 3rd, 2024, Kaonga while at a named lodge in Luwingu, allegedly did murder Chambi Simukonda.<\/p>\n
This was after the couple allegedly got into a violent altercation on the day of the incident.<\/p>\n
When the matter came up for trial before Judge Mathew Zulu, Chief Inspector Elliot Besa, 47, testified that on June 4, 2024, while on duty, he received a report of murder from Christopher Mulenga, 45, around midnight.<\/p>\n
Inspector Besa told the court that upon inspecting Simukonda\u2019s body, he observed two deep cuts on the left hand.<\/p>\n
Inspector Besa testified that at the crime scene, police recovered a broken bottle with blood stains believed to have been used in the fight.<\/p>\n
He added that subsequent investigations led to the apprehension of Kaonga.<\/p>\n
The officer further stated that Kaonga was issued with a warning and caution statement, which she responded to by denying the charge.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Kaonga through her defense team during cross-examination claimed that Simukonda had attempted to rape her, prompting her to act in self-defense.<\/p>\n
Although she complained of body pains and injuries to her private parts, the medical report concluded that her claims were inconsistent with the physical findings, therefore contradicting her claims.<\/p>\n
Chief Inspector Besa was the third and final prosecution witness, marking the close of the State\u2019s case.<\/p>\n
After reviewing the evidence, Judge Mathew Zulu ruled that the State had established a prima facie case, warranting Kaonga to be placed on her defense.<\/p>\n
Kaonga, is being represented by Legal Aid Board counsel and is expected to give sworn testimony and call two witnesses in her defense.<\/p>\n
The matter has since been adjourned to Friday, November 14, 2025, for the defense hearing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Kasama High Court has placed a 22-year-old woman of Chief Chipalo\u2019s chiefdom in Luwingu District on her defense, after the State established a prima facie case, in a matter where she stands accused of murdering her 42-year-old boyfriend. This is in a case in which Taonga Kaonga is charged with one count of murder […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1384,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1383","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-court","category-onlyzanis","entry","has-media"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.zanis.gov.zm\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1383","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.zanis.gov.zm\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.zanis.gov.zm\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.zanis.gov.zm\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.zanis.gov.zm\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1383"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.zanis.gov.zm\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1383\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1385,"href":"https:\/\/www.zanis.gov.zm\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1383\/revisions\/1385"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.zanis.gov.zm\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1384"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.zanis.gov.zm\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1383"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.zanis.gov.zm\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1383"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.zanis.gov.zm\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1383"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}