The ManicaPost
Tendai Gukutikwa
Post Correspondent
A 44-YEAR-OLD Honde Valley polygamist who accidentally hit his son’s head with a wooden axe handle during a scuffle over conjugal rights with his wife has been spared jail after getting a wholly-suspended three-year sentence.
The sentence follows Elaya Nyamahodo’s conviction on his own guilty plea to the culpable homicide charge he was facing before the Mutare High Court. Nyamahodo had pleaded not guilty to the murder charge he was facing before it was commuted to culpable homicide.
The father of 18 from Chavhanga Village was slapped with a three-year jail sentence which was wholly suspended for five years on condition of good behaviour by Mutare High Court judge, Justice Isaac Muzenda.
Ms Jane-Rose Matsikidze prosecuted.
The court heard that on October 30, 2019, Nyamahodo was in his second wife’s kitchen hut when the deceased’s mother, Mary Chiripawako, approached him.
She had her one-year-old son strapped on her back. Chiripawako demanded that Nyamahodo come to her bedroom and was aggrieved by his refusal. She threatened to join him and his second wife in the latter’s bed for the night.
This annoyed Nyamahodo.
He picked up a wooden axe handle and attacked Chiripawako with it.
However, he missed her and instead struck the baby’s head, injuring him in the process. Testifying in court, Chiripawako said when she advised Nyamahodo that he had struck the child, he ignored her. She later advised Nyamahodo’s uncle.
The child was rushed to the local clinic and was transferred to Hauna District Hospital.
Unfortunately he succumbed to the injuries.
A post-mortem examination concluded that the death was a result of severe head trauma.
In sentencing Nyamahodo, Justice Muzenda said Nyamahodo had not wasted the court’s time by denying the offence.
Justice Muzenda said as a polygamist with many children to take care of, Nyamahodo deserved a suspended sentence.
