By Lamin Njie
A prosecution witness told the high court in Bundung her sister was 15 years old when her mother told her it appeared she was pregnant.
The first witness who is an ex-wife of Bubacarr Keita standing trial for allegedly raping a minor, continued her testimony before Judge Momodou SM Jallow on Thursday.
“She was 15 years,” the witness taking the witness stand in her modernised African dress and ponytail hairstyle said when asked by prosecuting lawyers about how old was her sister when her mother told her it looked like her sister was pregnant.
Earlier on, the witness told the court the relationship between her ex-husband and her sister was ‘normal’.
“It was normal, just like brother and sister,” she said adding, “Yes, there was a joking relationship between them,” when asked if the duo had such relationship.
The witness who said she is a businesswoman who engages in different kinds of business that ranged from designing and make-up artistry said she would normally start her day at work by 9am. She however quickly added her work was contingent upon ‘calls’.
According to the witness, it was frequent for her to work at night and she would usually leave at the house her two kids, her sister (complainant) and her husband at the time.
“Sometimes if I have programs like fashion shows, I would be there until 4am,” the witness said when asked whether it was frequent for her to be at work until the early hours of the morning.
Testifying further, the witness said ‘sometimes we would go together, sometimes we would not go together, sometimes if we go together he would say he was going to his friends and I would be their alone’. This was after the prosecuting lawyer Assan Jobe asked her if she usually went to fashions shows with her husband.
The prosecuting lawyer then asked her: “Now let’s focus on the times when he would tell you he was going to his friends: do you know which of his friends he would usually go to?”
The witness replied: “Sometimes he would tell me, ‘I’m going to meet my friend Ansu’, sometimes he would say, ‘we have a barbecue somewhere’, or sometimes he would say, ‘I’m tired, I’m going home, call me when you’re done [to pick you up]’.”
The prosecuting lawyer examined the witness further: “The times he would tell you he’s going home, did you find out that he actually went home?”
“Yes, he would go home,” the witness said.
She then explained when asked when she got to knowing about the pregnancy of her sister and how she discovered it: “When I discovered the pregnancy was last November. That was when I discovered it.
“I woke up in the morning and I gave my sister lunch (school stipend) as she got ready for school. When I finished (preparing herself), I went to work. I later went to Banjul from work as I had a consignment there to pick up.
“In Banjul, I got a phone call from *Tida’s (sister; Tida not her real name) school. They asked me if I would be able to pick up *Tida because she’s collapsed. I then told them, ‘okay’ – and then I called my mom. I told my mom *Tida has collapsed in school and I wouldn’t be able to go pick her up as I was in Banjul but I would ask the driver to go and pick her up.
“My mom told me, ‘okay, let the driver go get her and I will bathe her with some medication because it looks like these collapse [of girls] is frequent in the school’. Because that was the second time she was experiencing it in the school.
“So the driver took her home (mother’s house) and when I got home, I called my mom. I asked her how *Tida was doing. She told me she was sleeping but told me I should allow her to stay with her for a while so she could keep bathing her with medication and she would not go to school.
“So in the night, I spoke with my mother again before going to bed, I asked how *Tida was doing. She told me she’s woken up and she’s entered the bathroom. So while speaking with my mom, she asked, ‘*Awa, have you noticed *Tida’s condition?’ I told her, ‘notice what?’ She told me, ‘it looks like *Tida is pregnant’ I told her, ‘pregnant?’ I said to her, ‘how can *Tida get pregnant, *Tida is just a chid?’
“I told her, ‘I have never given a chance to *Tida. ‘From classes, *Tida would be in the house’. ‘So how can *Tida be pregnant?’ She laughed and told me, ‘I’m an elder, if I see a pregnant person, I know. ‘I have seen her take off her clothes and going to the bathroom’. She then told me, ‘whatever you’re doing tomorrow, you should come and pick up *Tida and take her to the hospital to have her medically checked’.”
The witness then turned to the next morning upon the prosecuting lawyer asking her to discuss the events around that morning.
She explained: “The following morning, I woke up, made breakfast for my husband and also gave food to the kids to eat. After he (husband) ate, he left the house and I was there with the kids. While I was feeding the kids food, my ex-husband texted me. On the whole while he was leaving the house, he saw his mother washing dishes. He told me (in the text message) ‘you’re sitting inside the house while my mother is outside washing dishes’.
“I told him (via text), ‘you left me in the house taking care of the kids, so if your mother takes her dishes and washing them, what’s wrong with that?'”
The case continues on November 9.
