Christpowers’ father accused of peddling lies

THE father of the Headlands boy who died recently when a hut he was sleeping in caught fire has been accused of using the death of his son to peddle lies in pursuit of political mileage.

Sources yesterday said the father, Shepherd Maisiri, was not even touched by the death of Christpowers Maisiri.

"He is now using the death of his son, which is not even politically motivated, to get political mileage. Recently he was boasting that some of the donors who are sympathising with his family were going to build a bigger house for him," said a source.

There were only three huts at Maisiri's residence of which one was destroyed by the fire.

Investigations carried out so far revealed that Christpowers was mentally challenged and when his brother, James Maisiri tried to rescue him he only managed to remove the blankets from the inferno.

Police investigations have determined that the fire that claimed the life of Christpowers Maisiri in Headlands 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 at the scene.

"There was high probability that ammonium nitrate and tobacco chemicals exploded during the fire. Forensic experts did their analysis combined with police investigations and no foul play is suspected."

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

At around 11pm, James, Christpowers' elder brother, was awakened by an explosion and discovered that the house was on fire.

Police recovered from the hut, remnants of four bags of ammonium nitrate, clothing, nine blankets, a spirit level, two trowels, one passport in the name of Shepherd Maisiri, eight birth certificates, tobacco chemicals and textbooks.

A paraffin lamp was recovered near the bags of fertiliser.

Police have dismissed claims by Shepherd Maisiri that his house had been set on fire eight times in the past.

Asst Comm Charamba said only three cases were reported to the police.

Two of the cases were malicious injury to property and one of stock theft.

Police investigations found that claims by James Maisiri 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.

However, President Mugabe said MDC-T had gone on a crusade accusing Zanu-PF of fomenting 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.

The President indicated that on Christpowers' death, police had 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 also reports that some senior MDC-T officials coached Shepherd Maisiri to blame Zanu-PF over the incident.