THE 16 year-old boy accused of killing a security guard, will remain confined to a transit center as the Lusaka magistrates Court has ruled that he has not satisfied the requirements to have him admitted to bail.
During the boy’s first court appearance on Wednesday March 27, 2024, his lawyer Robert Siulapwa asked the court to release the child on bail as it was in his best interest that he gets back to school.
The boy of Lusaka’s Woodlands area who is a grade 10 pupil, has been indicted for murder.
It is alleged that the boy murdered EnocK Chanda on December 31, 2023, when he allegedly bashed him at Manda Hill shopping mall, as he was to stop him from speeding off after hitting into a stationed Toyota Allion in the car park.
According to the police, Chanda had tried to stop the boy from making off, by closing the gate in attempts to make him own up to his mistake but, the 16-year old who was driving fast could not hit the brakes of his Toyota Alphard and allegedly ran into the watchman purposefully.
Siulapwa had made the application in line with Section 73(3) and Setion 70(2)(a) of the children’s code Act no. 12 of 2022 which renders renders all offenses bailable for a child in conflict with the law.
However public prosecutor Chipo Gura proposed that the application be made before the right Court clothed with power to try murder.
Ruling on the application magistrate Anna Holland was in agreement that the children’s code Act sanctions Courts to grant children bail, conditions for bail and the test in line with section 73(2) ought to be met.
“In my decision I have considered the following; the age of the child, the nature and seriousness of the offence, the child’s ties to the community, whether the child poses a danger to the community, whether the child is a flight risk (and) the availability of appropriate supervision and support for the child if released on bail,” she said.
“The test that must be proved is weather the child is in fact in danger from the community or if he is a danger himself to the community.”
Magistrate Holland said Siulapwa ought to have filed necessary documentation for his client to pass the test but the same was not done which disadvantaged the child from being released on bail.
She said the child will remain under the watch of Zambia Correctional Service commissioner general Fredrick Chilukutu’s men, as he awaits his trial before the High Court.
“This very important test must have been made via a formal application through summons accompanied by an affidavit which is good practice and this then would allow the State the opportunity to then formally respond by filing an affidavit in opposition, and this would avoid any hearsay allegations at the bar in opposition to the application by counsel,”said magistrate Holland.
“I feel the test was not met out by counsel sufficiently to require me to grant the application and I hereby allow that the child be committed to the High Court-Childrens Court where such application for bail will be made.”
By Mwaka Ndawa
Kalemba March 29, 2024.
