One of the country’s child rights activists, Esmie Tembenu, has decried lenient punishments being imposed by the country’s courts on people who defile children saying the development is fueling the acts of evil.

Tembenu was referring to a court ruling in which a 70-year-old David Makonza, was convicted and sentenced to eight years imprisonment for defiling three minors.

Liwonde First Grade Magistrate, Jones Masula, on Wednesday, February 19, convicted and sentenced Makonza, for defiling three minors aged 11, 12 and 13 in the period of September 2019 to January 2020.

Tembenu said: “The presiding magistrate has been very lenient on the convict because defiling three children can’t be taken for granted considering that such cases are on the increase these days.”

She suggested that the case was enough to grant the convict a maximum of 14 years imprisonment.

Tembenu wondered where the mitigations came from considering the ages of the children who said are very young and innocent.

“Such people don’t deserve lenience at all.” She swore.