Yachi is Congolese- witness
By CHARLES MUSONDA FOLK musician Shadrick Mukenge, alias Mumba Yachi, is a Congolese and his purported parents of Zambian origin have disowned him, a State witness told the Lusaka Magistrates Court yesterday.
This is in a case in which Mukenge is charged for staying in Zambia illegally.
It is alleged that Mukenge entered Zambia through Mokambo border post and continued to unlawfully stay in Zambia without a valid permit or authority from the Immigrations Department.
He is also accused of obtaining a Zambian green national registration card number 405730/10/1 by alleging that his parents were Zambians when that was not true.
He is further accused of willfully and with intent to deceive and for the purpose of obtaining a Zambian passport number ZN50035, made a false statement to a passports officer by claiming that his father and mother were Zambian citizens.
When trial started before Magistrate Ruth Kapulo yesterday, an Immigration investigator based at Mokambo border post Hilary Namunji said on July 1, he was contacted by the headquarters in Lusaka to investigate Mukenge’s parentage.
Mr. Namunji said he confirmed that he knew Mukenge’s parents being Ms. Mary Ngoi Kasongo Fundi and Mr. Mundi of house number 17, Mwenda Avenue on Pedicle Road in Democratic Republic of Congo.
“Shadrick has been frequenting the border to see his parents. I was asked to get statements from both the father and the mother to confirm if Shadrick was their son…I got statements from both and submitted them to the headquarters. The parents are Congolese and I have known Shadrick for more than five years,” Mr Namunji said.
He said this arose from Mukenge’s arrest at Chirundu border post after which he was brought to Lusaka.
Mr. Namunji said at Immigration headquarters, he gave the officers an address for Mr. Francis Nonde Mumba and his wife Claudia Mwitwa Mumba, as his purported parents.
“I interviewed the couple and they denied being Shadrick’s parents. They confirmed that they did not know him. Parents of the accused are Ms. Mary Kasongo Ngoi Fundi and Mr. Fundi who are based in DRC. Shadrick was born in 1985 at a Catholic mission hospital at Mokambo on the DRC side,” he said.
He said marrying a Zambian national did not qualify a foreigner to automatically become a Zambian national and that one could only attain Zambian nationality by renouncing their country of origin and in Mukenge’s case that did not happen.
The matter comes up on October 30 for continued trial