22-year-old Chipili Man holds onto wife of late brother despite traditional cleansing ritual

Police have detained a CHIPILI man after he burned his sister-in-home law’s on fire when requested to leave after completing customary purification a few days earlier.

Titone Kapanshya, 22, moved in with his widowed sister-in-law after his brother passed away due to a family decision.

Gloria Mulele, the commanding commander of Luapula province, reported that Mr. Kapanshya spent a few days with his sister-in-law but refused to go back to his house after the purging.

She claimed that Mr. Kapanshya insisted on staying with his sister-in-law and made threats to commit suicide or set the house on fire if she refused.

Following a binge-drinking session, the suspect set fire to the widow’s home on January 5 at around 22:00 hrs.

According to Ms. Mulele, some neighbors hurried to the scene in an effort to put out the fire and prevent it from spreading.

“The family chose Mr Kapanshya to go and cleanse the complainant on December 10,2022 and they started staying together with the late brother’s wife. After some days he was told to leave the house since he had cleansed her but he refused to do so as he wanted to continue staying with his late brother’s wife as his own wife however, the complainant did not want him anymore since the cleansing was over so she forced him out of her house. Mr Kapanshya got annoyed and threatened her that he was going to kill himself or set the house ablaze,”she said.

She said investigations in the matter had continued.