Mudenda tries to block Karenyi from exposing unfair detention of Mamombe at Chikurubi

By Nyashadzashe Ndoro

Speaker of Parliament Jacob Mudenda on Tuesday tried to stop MDC Alliance Vice President Lynette Karenyi from raising the issue in the National Assembly about the “victimisation and subjection to torture” incarcerated Harare West legislator Joanah Mamombe (27).

Magistrate Bianca Makwande last week detained Mamombe at Chikurubi Maximum Security Prison and ordered state doctors to assess her mental condition.

Mamombe is accused of faking her abduction together with party colleagues Cecilia Chimbiri (31) and Netsai Marova (25).

Karenyi raised the issue as a motion in Parliament and claimed that the incarceration of Mamombe while she was not feeling well deprived her of the right to health but she was disrupted by Mudenda before she finished.

“I have realised that the issue of victimisation and the subjection to torture is also one of the key problems whereby women are not going to be encouraged to stand up to be in local government, to be in Parliament.

“Mr. Speaker, may I also draw your attention to the issue of the right to health.

“Honourable Speaker, we are encouraging young women to be Members of Parliament and we have got one of our Members of Parliament, Honourable Joanah Mamombe.

“Mr. Speaker, but I was trying to draw your attention to her health because it is more important before we raise the motion,” she said.

MDC Alliance Vice Chairman Job Sikhala intervened through a point of order to clarify the opposition members’ concerns over the continued detention of Mamombe.

“I want to raise my concerns over the manner in which you (speaker) dismissed a very important issue which Honourable Karenyi wanted to raise.

“Mr. Speaker Sir, the issue which Honourable Karenyi wanted to raise is an issue concerning one of the Members,” Sikhala said.

MDC Alliance MP Mamombe and party colleagues Chimbiri and Marova were arrested by police in May this year for participating in a demonstration where they were calling for the government to provide food to the poor during the Covid-19 lockdown.

Police spokesperson Paul Nyathi confirmed their arrest. But the trio were abducted from police custody by suspected state security agents and released four days later with several injuries.

They were arrested and charged with allegations of faking their disappearance before being released through a $10 000 bail by the High Court.