‘Maisiri using son’s death to gain cheap political mileage’

Shepherd Maisiri appeared not touched by the death of his son Christpowers.
“He is now using the death of his son which is not even politically motivated, to get political mileage,” said a source.

“Recently, he was boasting that some of the donors who are sympathising with him were going to build a bigger house for him.”

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There were only three huts at Maisiri’s home, one of which was destroyed by the fire.
Investigations carried out so far revealed that Christpowers was mentally challenged and when his brother, James, tried to rescue him he only managed to come out with blankets.

Police investigations have determined that the fire that claimed the life of Christpowers last week was a result of the explosion of tobacco chemicals and ammonium nitrate fertiliser in the thatched hut the boy was sleeping in.

Police chief spokesperson Assistant Commissioner Charity Charamba said there was no evidence of a petrol bomb on the scene.

There was a high probability that ammonium nitrate and tobacco chemicals exploded during the fire and police did not suspect foul play.

It was discovered that on the day in question Christpowers and his three brothers and a sister retired to bed around 9.30pm.

At around 11pm, James was awakened by an explosion and discovered that the house was on fire.
Police recovered remnants of four bags of ammonium nitrate, clothing, nine blankets, two trowels, one passport in the name of Shepherd Maisiri, eight birth certificates, tobacco chemicals and textbooks from the hut.

A paraffin lamp was recovered near the bags of fertiliser.
Asst Comm Charamba dismissed claims by Maisiri that his house had been set on fire eight times in the past.

She said only three cases were reported to the police, with two of them being malicious injury to property and one of stock theft.

Police investigations found that claims by James that he was burnt while rescuing others were unfounded.

MDC-T last week hijacked the 12-year-old boy’s funeral claiming that the boy was a victim of political violence.

MDC-T secretary Mr Tendai Biti accused a senior Zanu-PF official in Manicaland and party supporters of causing the boy’s death.

He claimed that MDC-T ministers confronted the senior Zanu-PF official during a Cabinet meeting on Tuesday and he gave no satisfactory answer over the allegations.

President Mugabe said over the weekend that MDC-T had gone on a crusade accusing Zanu-PF of formenting political violence ahead of harmonised elections slated for this year in a desperate bid to cover up for the defeat the party was likely to suffer at the polls.

He said the party was building a false picture of violent acts ahead of the general elections.
President Mugabe indicated that on Christpowers’ death, police said they did not suspect any foul play in their preliminary investigations and urged the public to wait for the law enforcement agents to complete their inquiries.

There are suspicions that some senior MDC-T officials coached Maisiri to blame Zanu-PF over the incident.