Karoi man gets death penalty for killing son

Court Reporter
A KAROI man has been condemned to death for killing his nine year-old-son in cold blood and selling his ear and blood in May last year.
High Court judge Justice Tendai Uchena sentenced Bigknows Wairosi to death after the court found no extenuating factors.
However, Wairosi is entitled to automatic appeal at the Supreme Court in terms of the law.
He was last week convicted of murdering one of his two sons with actual intent.
“We have considered that there are no extenuating circumstances and you will be returned to prison for your death penalty to be executed,” Justice Uchena said.
In mitigation, Wairosi of Murambiwa Village under Chief Dandawa who was represented by Mr Moses Nkomo said he did not commit the offence.
“I did not commit the offence because I was coerced by my accomplices who tortured me and they are the ones who killed my son,” said Wairosi.
His submission could not persuade Justice Uchena to exercise mercy on him saying Wairosi’s actions did not show that he was influenced.
The judge also noted the issue of maturity and mental status of the accused before passing sentence.
Mr Musekiwa Mbanje of the Attorney-General’s Office had called for the maximum penalty.
Said Justice Uchena: “On the contrary, the accused person showed that he knew what he was doing and what he wanted to achieve, because he resisted his mother’s advice and managed to persuade her into handing him the children.”
Further, the court was satisfied that this was a clearly planned offence and there were no extenuating circumstances.
Wairosi committed the offence in 2007 when he was 27-years-old and was paid Z$40 million.
On June 12, 2007 he went to the Dandawa area where his sons lived with their grandmother, Mrs Eneresi Siamkonde.
Wairosi said he was taking the two boys to Karoi to get them birth certificates.
However, he took them to three men who were clad in black clothes and they boarded the strangers’ truck.
They passed through Karoi and parked in a bush where Wairosi disembarked with the younger son and left the nine year-old in the truck with the men.
He struck his son on the head twice with an iron bar killing him on the spot.
He then used a pair of scissors to cut off the right ear and collected blood in a lunch box, which he handed over to the men.
He then dumped the body at Sandara Farm after crushing the boy’s head with a stone.
The other son witnessed all that took place before he fled.
Wairosi then made a missing person’s report in Karoi but the murder came to light when the elder son resurfaced at the same police station where the report had been made and narrated what he had seen.
A Magunje businessman has also been implicated in the ritual murder.