By White Luhanga
A 25-Year-Old Man in Chief Luchembe of Kanchibiya District in Muchinga Province has allegedly taken his own life in a dispute over two gallons of caterpillars with his wife.
The deceased has been identified as Haggai Chanda.
Muchinga Province Police Commanding Officer Dennis Moola confirmed the incident, stating that it occurred between November 13, 2025, around 23:00 hours and November 14, 2025, around 05:00 hours in Mutinda Village.
On November 13, 2025, around 17:00 hours, the couple went drinking. Upon returning home at 23:00 hours, the husband demanded two gallons of caterpillars from his wife, Lucia Chanda, aged 22, to exchange for beer.
The wife told Chanda that she had taken the two gallons of caterpillars to his mother-in-law for safekeeping.
Mr. Moola says that angered him, as he thought his wife had sold them, and he started expressing his anger by damaging the door of his house and the house, and later started beating his wife, who then left the house and went into hiding.
He says Chanda, now the deceased, was then seen leaving the house while carrying a flashlight and a mosquito net, going towards his mother’s house.
The following morning, around 05:00 hours, the nephew to Chanda, aged 15, went to the house of his uncle and asked about his whereabouts. He was told by his aunt that he was at her mother-in-law’s place.
As he was on his way, he found his uncle hanging dead from a Musuku tree and went back to inform his aunt.
Having received the disturbing news, the wife rushed there and found her husband hanging on a tree, and later the matter was reported to the police.
An inquiry file has been opened, and relatives have been advised to bury the deceased and mark the grave for possible exhumation, as there was no foul play suspected.
(Image just used for illustration)Zambia Reports 14th November, 2025