WHOSE BREASTS AND GENITALS??

Sometimes, when you hear things, it is better to pretend you heard nothing: but sometimes, even when you want to pretend you simply would not manage. I have to confess that lately I have not read Newspapers much yet from the few editions I have read, I have come across judgements that I think are a mockery to justice. I wonder if most of the Judges and Magistrates have the sixth sense- Common Sense.

For a start, lets have a take on why we have all the justice systems we have. Lets seriously on why societies have penal codes and why we punish people. Philosophers identify two main reasons why societies punish people. People are punished either as retribution to the wrongs they have committed to the society or as a detterence to would be offenders. In each case however, the understanding is that by inflicting pain on one person, the offender inflicts pain on the entire society and hence the society is justified to take action against the offender.

Now consider the case in which a Chinese national and his Malawian accomplice were fined K100,000 as a punishment for being found in possession of human breasts and female private parts. It is very surprising that our laws did not take this as murder, neither was this treated as grevious bodily harm but rather as a conspiracy to cause bodily harm- How laughable!!. I have never imagined a situation in which a person can be found with such items without necessarily causing bodily harm to someone. Moreover, the assumption that the one who lost the breasts and the genitals is still living but just missing can only be understood in the courtroom language.

I wish our learned judges had the power to use common sense in some of these matters.