Man exhumes niece's body to boost harvest

A 54-year-old Murewa man under Chief Mangwende was last week sentenced to 18 months in prison for exhuming his niece's remains and mixing them with some traditional herbs before placing the mixture in his fields in the hope of getting a bumper harvest.

Happison Chirimudombo appeared before Murewa magistrate Mr Paul Mudonhi, who convicted him on two counts of violating a corpse and a grave.

Chirimudombo was sentenced to 24 months imprisonment, but six months were suspended for five years on condition of good behaviour.

Prosecutor Mr Panganayi Chiutsi proved that sometime in 2014, Chirimudombo's niece, identified as Gamuchirai, died mysteriously and after the burial, Chirimudombo went to the grave at night and dug it up.

Facts are that Chirimudombo took a leg bone and ribs from the remains and went home, where he concocted a mixture of the bones and some traditional herbs. He placed the mixture in his fields to try and induce a bumper harvest.

The offence came to light when a local prophet was invited by some family members to try and uravel why family members were dying mysteriously.

The prophet revealed to the family members that the unfortunate deaths were because Chirimudombo was using juju.