A Zambian soldier, Pathias Mwape, has killed his wife, Esther, 33, after discovering that two of their children were not biologically his.
The children were allegedly fathered by one of his superior officers.
The incident happened at the Kabwe Chindwin Barracks in Zambia, where the deceased wife reportedly had an affair with her husband’s boss.
The soldier reportedly heard rumours that two of his children were not his and when he confronted his wife, who was also a policewoman, she allegedly broke down in tears and confessed that two of the children were not his.
Mwape reportedly shot dead his wife, using a pistol. After realising that Police were looking for him, Mwape committed suicide.
“Rumours have been going on for sometimes, all we know is that the wife was sleeping with one of our bosses. It is believed those two children are for the boss but he raised them to date. He was mad, in the morning after shooting his wife he left looking for the boss. He wanted to shoot him too but fortunate enough, the boss was not home together with his wife and children” a soldier source said.
“When he went for peacekeeping some years back, one of our bosses use to go and sleep in their house. It’s a well-known story. The top bosses know about it and we are waiting to see if the cause of this problem will be punished according to our guiding command procedures.”
An officer at Kabwe Chindwin Barracks has revealed further that military bosses in barracks are fond of sleeping with the wives of their junior officers.
Meanwhile, the father of the deceased female police officer, Moses Mulombwa, a retired police officer himself, told the Times of Zambia in an interview that both he and his daughter, Esther, should have seen the tragedy coming.
He said the marriage should never have happened given her complaints about 42-year-old Warrant Officer Pathias Mwape, recalling how she had once told him; “He loves me but he’s a problem.”
