Uxoricide: Murder of 'wife', 'girlfriend' a concern
Pini Bothoko | Tuesday December 20, 2022 06:00
This act, called by a rarely heard or used word in this country, is universally known as uxoricide, which according to Wikipedia, takes root from the Latin word 'uxor' meaning 'wife' formed in combination with '-cide' (to cut or to kill), meaning a person or substance that kills.
Uxoricide, or so-called passion killing as commonly referred to locally, has grown to be a concern. The degree to which recorded cases of women dying at the hands of their intimate partner is at a much higher rate when compared to mariticide, the killing of a husband or boyfriend by their intimate partner. Such murders can send a bone-chilling effect, to say the least.
This ultimate Gender-Based Violence (GBV) often witnessed or experienced by children, who can fall casualty to such violence too, causes great concern given its effects reflected in their behaviours at school.
Where trends can be calculated, they show that the magnitude of such gender-related killings is on the rise as women dying at the hands of their intimate partners remain one of the most pervasive human rights violations. Just like the previous years, the year 2022 shows an increase in GBV incidents hence the need for government to be urged to act with due diligence to curb this scourge and investigate deeply to establish what could be the cause and come up with relevant interventions.
The conflict that usually leads to the murder of, or some other violent crime against, an intimate partner continued to spiral out of control this year with women mostly as the victims of such violent crimes.
Murder cases involving intimate partners, especially boyfriends, girlfriends, and ex-lovers, continue to worry the police. Feelings of rejection and jealousy seemed to be more common as triggers to kill for men than for women. According to the police, these killings are allegedly motivated by jealousy amongst intimate partners, especially by men often labelled passion killings.
The police shared their observation that men kill their partners acting out of jealousy, which tends to result in them focusing on the negatives. Surprisingly, even law enforcement officers were affected by these intimate killings in high numbers.
In February in Molepolole, a Botswana Defence Force (BDF) officer of the rank of Major shot and killed his wife, shot and injured his nephew, who later succumbed to the injuries and turned the gun on himself.
In September, another shooting occurred at Sese Veterinary Gate near Serule in which a 34-year-old male constable shot and killed his 36-year-old female colleague using his service rifle.
Then, the male officer allegedly shot at and wounded another officer, 56, and finally turned the gun on himself. In another act of violence last month at Mogoditshane Police Camp, a 39-year-old woman landed in the hospital after allegedly being shot by her husband, a 46-year-old Botswana Police sub-inspector who turned the gun on himself.
Another gruesome incident that left the whole country reeling in shock was a double murder incident that occurred in Gaborone West in September in which a 24-year-old man, Lesego Dikgang, allegedly murdered two young women, Janet Alfred and Osego Thipe. The duo was found lying in a pool of blood by neighbours with multiple stab wounds and their throats allegedly slashed. Plenty more similar incidents of murder with shocking details have been recorded in the country and elsewhere.
In a rather unusual incident, at the beginning of this month in Newstance in Francistown, a 21-year-old woman fatally stabbed her 34-year-old boyfriend following a misunderstanding. Moreover, given such records with no end to the scourge, the police continue to record murder cases countrywide in which dozens of women still die at the hands of their intimate partners.