If life is a book, then I guess the days are pages in the
book called life.
15th July 2022 is a page leaf of my life story I hate to recall. This is the day I was sentenced to 3 years imprisonment with hard labour. A day that marked the beginning of my dark ages of time in the land of Mukobeko. A land of the graves once believed to be the last stage of life before death. A part of the world were the not free work in the midst of weeping souls as they dance to the labour tune of the Platoon commander. This land is known as the cursed land of Zookaili to the inmates at Medium correctional facility.
So many stories have been written and told about this land.
Not by people who once wore the orange uniform of shame like me, but by people
who have never lived a life of same old shit in different days with different needs. It’s
not the life of the not free I want to tell, but the dark story surrounding the land of Mukobeko.
In the central province of Zambia, 12.7 Km West of Kabwe
town is a vast land stretched along the Mphunde rural road. On this land seat
the infamous highest correctional facility in Zambia Mukobeko maximum. Next to the infamous correctional
facility is Medium correctional facility and Mukobeko maximum correctional
facility for female inmates. To the east of the female maximum is a township
called Mukobeko. A township developing at the edge of the cemetery under the
shadows of the infamous Mukobeko maximum correctional facility.
A drive from Kabwe town to the cursed land of Mukobeko
presents a rare view people living in the inner communities surrounding Kabwe
town don’t get to see on a daily basis. Notably, on the right side of the road
as you come from town heading to the land of Mukobeko is a golf course, next
to the golf course is the central hospital and it’s mortuary. To the left side
of the road is a stretch of graves. A stretch of about 12.7 KM to the Eastern side
of Kabwe. To the southern side of Kabwe the graves stretch as far as the boundaries
of the largest shanty compound in Africa. Makululu.
A sign of hope for life and a better future can be seen when
you reach the township of Mukobeko It’s a picture of men and women doing
business, students roaming around the skills training trade school called Kabwe
institute of technology. Former Kabwe trades. It’s a picture of the free with a
promising future after the apocalypse of life in the cursed lands of Mukobeko.
The history surrounding the land of Mukobeko tells us
that the bad seeds of evil in this land of the weeping souls were sworn at
Mukobeko maximum correctional facility during the era of death penalty in
Zambia.
The name ‘Mukobeko’ originates from the local Lenje language
and means punishment. It was coined in the 1800s way before the colonial
masters set foot in Zambia.The name is a reminder of the dark cruel days of
death penalty in this bad land of the walking dead.
According to The Guardian publication made on 22 May 2024 titled “Zambia has killed the death penalty, but
other rights remain on death row”. This publication reported that:
"The penalty was introduced in colonial Northern Rhodesia in
1931 as the punishment for anyone convicted of murder, treason or aggravated
robbery. It was given effect by the criminal procedure code (CPC) two years
later, backed by article 12 of the country’s bill of rights, unchanged since
1963.
Since independence from Britain in 1964, Zambia has executed
72 people, with 380 currently on death row. The country’s founding president,
Kenneth Kaunda, sanctioned 64 executions, while his successor Frederick Chiluba
approved eight.
Since 1997, Zambian presidents have refused to sign execution orders, choosing instead to commute sentences to life imprisonment. The removal of capital provisions from the penal code is a positive step that marks the end of the use of a cruel, inhuman and degrading method of punishment. It also makes Zambia compliant with the 1966 International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights".
The land of Mukobeko is a land surrounded by stories
of horror and myths no one can confirm if they are true or not. A popular myth
among the inmates at Medium correctional facility is that the foundations of
the prison security structures in the cursed land of Mukobeko were raised on
top of an old abandoned cemetery. No one knows if this story told by inmates
who believe to have been condemned to sleep in the grave yard is true or not.
The unhidden truth is that, on the right side of the main
road into the prison land are four graves in Mable tomb stone stretched along a
Cashew nut tree plantation. They are the first disturbing view you see as you
pass through the entrance gate.
Stories of people seeing ghosts in the night around this
area have continued to spread from time to time among the locals and drivers. These
stories are not so different from the alien tales of Nevada.
The land of Mukobeko might not qualify to be called
the land of the skull but certainly qualifies to be called “The Land Of The
graves”.