Panga killer gets 32-year sentence

THE man responsible for a bloody panga attack which claimed the life of a young man and left a second person with serious injuries three years ago has been sent to jail for an effective 32 years.

Although Lukas Hangula Kamati (32) had been provoked to some extent by the two people that he ended up attacking with a panga, his reaction was exaggerated and his conduct can only be described as barbaric, Judge Marlene Tommasi remarked when she sentenced Kamati in the High Court at Oshakati on Thursday last week.The sort of brutality displayed by Kamati has become commonplace, with weapons like pangas and knives the preferred instruments with which such brutal crimes are being committed, Judge Tommasi commented.The message to other people who might commit such crimes should be that the courts would deal with them steadfastly by sentencing them to lengthy prison terms, she warned.She told Kamati: ‘This was a senseless attack which took the life of a 24-year-old young man and mutilated another.’Kamati pleaded guilty to charges of murder and attempted murder at the start of his trial on September 21.He admitted that he murdered David Valomboleni (24) at Oshigwegwela in the Outapi district by hacking him with a panga. On the same occasion, he attempted to murder a friend of Valomboleni, Lukas Bonifatius, by also striking him several times with a panga, Kamati admitted.In a plea explanation Kamati informed the court that he had a relationship with the mother of Bonifatius, and that the latter and Valomboleni were not happy with this state of affairs.He claimed they were harassing and victimising him ‘on every possible occasion’ because of this, and that he had also been assaulted by Valomboleni on two occasions before the day of the deadly incident.On the day in question he was at a cuca shop when Valomboleni and Bonifatius also arrived there, Kamati related. He claimed they were again harassing and provoking him.He at first tried to ignore them, but they continued to goad him, he claimed.’I just started to feel anger welling up in me and could not take the provocation and harassment any more and took out my panga and started cutting David Valomboleni,’ Kamati stated. ‘I understand later that I cut the deceased on his head, neck, arms and back thereby killing him,’ he related.Kamati added that when he had finished with Valomboleni he turned to Bonifatius and also attacked him with the panga.’During the whole process my mind was just occupied by anger because of the continuous provocation and harassment I suffered at the hand of the two for a period of time,’ he claimed.According to the evidence before Judge Tommasi Valomboleni was struck no fewer than five times with the panga. The blows were directed at his head, where several blood vessels were cut, and his one arm was almost completely severed.Bonifatius’s left thumb and part of the palm of his left hand were chopped off, and he also sustained injuries to his head, neck, arms, right hand and leg. He spent some six months in hospital to be treated for his injuries.Judge Tommasi said she could not ignore the fact that Kamati, who was employed as a domestic worker by the owner of the cuca shop where the attack took place, is an unsophisticated person who was publicly taunted, ostracised and humiliated by the two men.’It is human nature to respond to provocation and everyone has a threshold to be reached,’ she said. ‘Having said this it does not mean that violent responses to provocation can be tolerated in a civilised society.’ The values of Namibian society demand that there must be a balance between the nature of the provocation and the response thereto, she added.She sentenced Kamati, who has spent the past three years in custody, to a 30-year prison term on the murder charge, and to 10 years’ imprisonment, of which eight years were ordered to be served concurrently with the sentence on the murder charge, for the attempted murder.Deputy Prosecutor General Lucious Matota prosecuted. Kamati was represented by Legal Aid Directorate lawyer Rachel Nathaniël-Koch.

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