AS A TALE, it is one scripted by the devil in his personal note book but sadly it is reality for a peasant farmer of Chibombo District.
Being arrested anywhere in the world is unpleasant, but in Zambia, being thrown in police holding cells is the worst experience for many as they come face-to-face with walls covered in sentences written with human excrement and a toilet plastered with a decade-old feacal matter.
But if that is horrifying to you, then the ordeal of William Nyirenda of Chibombo District will shock you.
Nyirenda, who was arrested for suspected stock theft and shuttled between Westwood Police Post, Lusaka Central Police Station and Kamwala Remand Prison underwent unimaginable torture.
He narrates that during his incarceration, he was beaten by the cell Captain and made to chew the mop used to clean the toilet.
Under this ordeal, Nyirenda sustained multiple infections and bruises from beatings used by his torturers to encourage him to speed up the eating of the mop.
Comparable only to Job’s afflictions in the Bible, whilst undergoing this ordeal, news filtered through to him that his son had died from natural causes and that his small holding has lost two herds of cattle and seven pigs to irate members of the public who were taking vengeance on him for his alleged thieving.
However, Lady Justice came to Nyirenda rescue and the Lusaka Magistrates Court acquitted him of this charge.
He has now sued the Attorney General and two other individuals of Chibombo namely Mr Rodney Chikole and Mr Mike Mwenya whom he says falsely accused him and rendered him to the devils who assaulted him and made him eat a toilet mop.
In the said suit, Nyirenda is demanding K250,000 compensation.
@Kalemba readers, have you been arrested before, what was your experience in police cells?
Kalemba March 13, 2021
